Running Away from the Pozen Plan

Today’s Meet The Press had two prominent Republicans distancing themselves from the Pozen plan. Senator Allen seemed sincere about his opposition to cutting benefits for the middle class. When Andrew Card was presented with the size of these cuts, he told Tim Russert:

Now, the plan that you put on the table is really not necessarily the president’s plan.

While Russert did not challenge this statement, during his interview with Senators Allen and Dodd, he kept referring to it as the President’s plan.

Robert Novak, however, endorsed this plan on Capital Gang as he’s always been for means testing. Robert Novak – self-styled champion of the little guy – also said that Pozen’s plan only cut the rate of growth of benefits. Of course, it cuts it to zero, but does this self-styled expert in economics understand the difference between nominal increases and real increases?