|
|
|
Jewish World Review August 26, 2005 / 21 Av, 5765 Bush's Social Security plan may hinge on the House By Carl P. Leubsdorf
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
As Ronald Reagan might have put it, there they go again.
Congressional Republicans, persisting in hopes of enacting some form
of private Social Security option despite opposition from the public
and the Democrats, are considering the same kind of maneuver that
enabled them to pass a controversial Medicare drug bill two years
ago.
That's the clear signal from key GOP congressional leaders and chief
White House strategist Karl Rove, one of the main architects of the
Social Security proposal that President Bush made his top 2005
priority.
Mr. Rove, speaking to college students and lobbyists before Congress
went on its current recess, said the House would act next month and
the Senate soon after, according to the congressional newspaper The
Hill.
And Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., chairman of the Ways and Means
Committee and one of his party's canniest operatives, said without
giving details that his panel would introduce a retirement security
bill in September.
His comments were especially interesting given the divisions among
Republicans whether a bill this year should tackle Social Security's
long-term solvency problems or give priority to enacting a private
option that could be expanded in future years.
The White House and its congressional allies have gone back and
forth on whether to try to pass a Social Security bill first in the
Senate or in the House.
But insufficient GOP support in the Senate Finance Committee and a
solid wall of Democratic opposition that ensures enough votes to
sustain a filibuster have forced them to look first to the House.
Solid Republican discipline there has enabled the party's narrow
majority to prevail on vote after vote in recent years, most
recently on the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
None had as torturous a path to enactment as the bill to create a
prescription drug program. It only passed in 2003 after three hours
of early morning arm twisting and the help of misleading cost
estimates that soon proved to have been understated.
Because the Senate had passed a similar bill, Republicans could take
the measure to a Senate-House conference. By excluding most
Democrats from any role, they crafted the kind of bill they wanted
in the first place.
That would appear to be their hope for private Social Security
accounts — pass a bill in the House authorizing private accounts,
accept any Social Security vehicle in the Senate that gets the issue
to conference and write a final version letting the White House
proclaim success.
In recent weeks, various members have floated several different
versions that could form the basis of a GOP bill.
Some House Republicans, including Rep. Sam Johnson of Plano, would
use Social Security's current surpluses for private accounts, rather
than to curb the overall budget deficit. But that not only would
fail to address the system's solvency, it also is likely to make the
budget situation worse.
Mr. Thomas has said he expects to address solvency, which became the
top White House talking point after it became evident that neither
the public nor Congress was ready to accept private accounts.
Mr. Bush continues to press the Social Security issue in his
speeches. And administration foes, buoyed by their success in
shaping the debate, are using the August recess to maintain pressure
on selected GOP members who are cool to the White House approach.
In the end, any GOP success may depend, as it has before, on uniting
virtually all House Republicans behind a compromise bill and picking
up a small number of Senate Democrats. Sen. Charles Grassley,
R-Iowa, the chairman of the Finance Committee, remains optimistic
despite his inability to woo any Democrats so far.
"I'm not going to give up on personal accounts until the last
minute," he told Bloomberg News.
That last minute probably won't come until close to Thanksgiving, or
even Christmas Eve. But some Republicans think any effort — even if
unsuccessful — would pay off in next year's mid-term elections by
attracting younger voters who don't believe they will get much from
Social Security.
The problem is that the public remains dubious and no group more so
than older voters. And they're the ones who vote most heavily in
mid-term elections.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
© 2005, Dallas Morning News Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
|
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
