If you want to know why Democrats are losers, the perfect example is the party’s inability—either through lack of imagination or stupidity—to change the debate from the manufactured “crisis” in Social Security to the real crisis in health care. It’s enough to make a normal person, which I am not, scream.

You can see that just in today’s developments. First, the trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds report that Medicare is in much worse shape than Social Security. Medicare premiums are expected to rise 12 percent next year—after a 17 percent hike this year. At this rate, people will be bankrupted because of their medical expenses before they even get to worry about Social Security.

Second, General Motors is going to try to cream its union workers by deeply cutting health care benefits, slashing them down to the “less-rich packages it offers to salaried white-collar employees,” according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

And to add to the list, yours truly just received in the mail yesterday a notice from my health care provider informing me that “Unfortunately, over the past several years, we have seen a trend of increased health care costs. As a result, we regret that your monthly premium will increase effective 05-01-2005.” I’m sure I’m in good company.

This is not rocket science. Back in December, having recalled a previous revelation about GM’s huge health care obligations to its current and retired workers, I wrote that the real crisis is health care, not Social Security. And that we had an opportunity to shift the debate. We still do. But, we need leadership. Oh, I forgot, politicians like Hillary Clinton, who once thought health care was an important issue, are too busy trying to position themselves by voting for wars and avoiding any issue that might be seen as too liberal.