Bush Addresses GOP Social Security Split

05/25/2005

GREECE, N.Y. (AP) - President Bush, facing an uphill battle on Social Security in Congress, worked Tuesday to persuade moderate Republicans to resist pressure from constituents and support his ideas for changing the nation’s retirement system.

“I fully recognize some in Washington, you know, don’t particularly want to address this issue,” Bush said in an auditorium at Greece Athena Middle and High School. I recognize some of them say, ‘Well, this is, this is a partisan thing. You know, we don’t want to make one party look good at the expense of another.”

Moderate Republicans like those Bush targeted here in New York could end up being the swing votes he needs to get Congress to approve his ideas for addressing the system’s solvency problems and let younger workers set up their own retirement accounts.

“I think more and more people recognize there’s a problem and people are going to say ‘Go do something about it.’ And those who obstruct reform - no matter what party they’re in - will pay a political price, in my judgment,” Bush said.


Democrats say Bush and the Republicans are trying to destroy the program and shift it from one providing a guaranteed government benefit to one in which workers manage their own benefits subject to the fluctuations of the stock market.

To pressure moderate Republicans in New York to split with their party, Democrats have dispatched volunteers to organize town hall meetings and are distributing flyers to constituents in districts represented by Republicans who are taking a wait-and-see attitude about changing Social Security.

Coinciding with the president’s visit, the AARP launched a statewide petition drive to urge its 2.5 million members in New York to send postcards to members of Congress encouraging them to reform Social Security, but avoid setting up private accounts that the group feels would weaken the program.

A demonstration against Bush’s ideas for reform also was planned in Rochester by the Rochester AFL-CIO, Citizens Action of New York, the Monroe County Democratic Committee and other groups.

“We’re against private accounts. We’re against benefit cuts for low-and middle-income families,” Alex Navarro, a spokesman for New Yorkers United to Protect Social Security, said in a telephone interview. “We’re also opposed to Bush’s philosophical ideas about an ownership society. We believe Social Security works best when we’re all in this together.”

Bush’s visit here also comes as Social Security is drawing the focus on Capitol Hill.

On Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee is holding a hearing that for a second time will address the government retirement program’s long-term financial challenges.

In the House, the Ways and Means Committee had three hearings in a week and two more scheduled for this week - suggesting a more rapid pace toward producing legislation.

Bush was introduced by Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., one of several U.S. representatives from New York who have been under pressure from citizen and labor groups that oppose Bush’s ideas for reform.

In his 2004 congressional race, attacked his challenger, Jack Davis, for saying that “some changes are going to have to be made” in Social Security. Reynolds, a Bush supporter and Republican fund-raiser, now says he respects the president’s willingness to take on the issue, but has refrained from coming out directly in favor of Bush’s ideas.

Democrats in both the House and Senate have refused to participate in any discussions until Bush drops his insistence on the accounts.

“Notice I said voluntary,” Bush said. “The government should say to the younger worker ‘If you want to you can put some of your own money aside. You don’t have to.”