Josh Marshall, today:

We could have an honest debate about whether we'd be better off with Social Security or a system of government-regulated 401ks in its place. But the president knows that's a debate he can't win. So he's trying to scam the public into helping him destroy what the vast majority want to protect.”

Me, two years ago:

Again, the true debate is one the hard right is unwilling to have because it knows it will lose. The administration is now admitting that "weapons of mass destruction" was really just "the reason everyone could agree on" to go to war, a pretty plain admission that the war was decided on long before it was justified. For tax cuts, the hidden motive is to starve the government of revenue in the hopes of gutting the social programs that the vast majority of Americans want. If tax cuts slash the government's income by 50% or so, Congress will have to get rid of programs that the GOP hates, like education and health care for people who are obviously too inferior to afford their own. These are cuts the right could never get through on their merits, so they're trying to force them through the back door.