The Week

In his memoir Governing America, Joe Califano, erstwhile Grand Duke of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, recalls that when he and his colleagues were asked to submit their resignations they were also asked to review their own subordinates and “get rid of all those who are incompetent, except minorities and women.” So much for the pious denials that affirmative action meant anything but a “good-faith effort” to find “qualified members” of disadvantaged groups: it meant protecting the unqualified — right up to the sub-Cabinet level.

The Administration fumbled politically with its proposed measures to straighten out the Social Security mess. The 96 to 0 Senate defeat showed that the White House had not done the necessary liaison work. Meanwhile, Reagan’s initiative gives the Democrats a badly needed issue with which to appeal to middle-class voters, and has also dampened Reagan’s popularity just before his critically important tax reduction proposals are up for passage. Nonetheless, the proposed measures have introduced a sense of reality into the general discussion of the Social Security problem, and have reassured the financial markets with evidence of a clear commitment to fiscal integrity. Without reforms the Social Security system is doomed. Down the road, when this sinks in, Reagan’s proposals may turn out to be a political plus.

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Presidential Election

William F. Buckley Jr.

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In his memoir Governing America, Joe Califano, erstwhile Grand Duke of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, recalls that when he and his colleagues were asked to submit their resignations they were also asked to review their own subordinates and “get rid of all those who are incompetent, except minorities and women.” So much for the pious denials that affirmative action meant anything but a “good-faith effort” to find “qualified members” of disadvantaged groups: it meant protecting the unqualified — right up to the sub-Cabinet level.

The Administration fumbled politically with its proposed measures to straighten out the Social Security mess. The 96 to 0 Senate defeat showed that the White House had not done the necessary liaison work. Meanwhile, Reagan’s initiative gives the Democrats a badly needed issue with which to appeal to middle-class voters, and has also dampened Reagan’s popularity just before his critically important tax reduction proposals are up for passage. Nonetheless, the proposed measures have introduced a sense of reality into the general discussion of the Social Security problem, and have reassured the financial markets with evidence of a clear commitment to fiscal integrity. Without reforms the Social Security system is doomed. Down the road, when this sinks in, Reagan’s proposals may turn out to be a political plus.