Howard Fineman in Newseek gets at the legislative strategy that is still in formation, writing about President Bush's political gamble and concluding thusly: "…Bush's GOP allies are moving cautiously. They won't even try, Hill sources tell NEWSWEEK, to unify behind a particular bill until the fallhoping to lure Democrats to make a counterproposal first. That will leave plenty of time for more talk, more campaigning, more bloggingand rock concerts."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6920457/site/newsweekBush's Big Bet: Risking His Capital - He got the ball rolling at the State of the Union. But it's no ordinary fight. On trial: America's core belief in the social contract, and its faith in the private sector
Social Security and Iraq were at the top of Bush’s State of the Union agenda
By Howard Fineman
NewsweekFeb. 14 issue - <snip>In a forceful State of the Union address last week, the president won applause from the whole chamber when he called the 70-year-old program "a great moral success of the 20th century." But he divided the House into Republican applause and Democratic boos when he declared the "system, on its current path, is headed toward bankruptcy." If it is—a controversial assumption—how does Bush plan to "save" it? Well, if pain is required, he did not mention it. He ruled out an increase in payroll taxes. He tiptoed around the fact that benefit cuts would inevitably be needed. Instead, in a radical departure from Social Security orthodoxy, he suggested that retirees could earn bigger pension payouts by investing a portion of their payroll taxes in individual, private savings accounts, similar to familiar 401(k)s. There was risk in such stock and bond accounts, he admitted, but a greater one—given the looming retirement of the baby boomers—in relying solely on the transfer of tax revenue from one generation to the next.
Bush and Karl Rove love to push on the Democrats' unlocked doors, and this one might be slightly ajar. The new NEWSWEEK Poll contains evidence of the generational divide AARP and Rock the Vote are hoping to bridge. A whopping 75 percent of voters under 35 think that Social Security is "facing a funding crisis"—while only 52 percent of voters 55 and older agree. A majority of the older voters believe that they will get all their scheduled benefits; only 32 percent of young voters do. These younger people—three generations away from the Depression and with a greater tolerance for risk—think that retirement accounts would strengthen the Social Security system; older voters do not. Yet even younger voters, so far, are ambivalent about Bush's proposal, and are evenly divided on the question of whether "investing Social Security money in the stock market is too big a risk." And, as is the case with all Americans, young voters want their free lunch: 73 percent say the government should protect them if their accounts go bust—the highest percentage of any age group.
<snip>
But the tides of history won't necessarily sweep along wary Republicans who face reelection next year—let alone deeply suspicious Democrats. On a flight to Fargo, N.D., last week, Bush fenced jovially with Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad, a fiscal watchdog with an accounting degree from Stanford. "It was polite persuasion, a lot of friendly arm-twisting," the senator told NEWSWEEK later. But it was "no sale." There would have to be "major adjustments," Conrad told the president. In fact, Bush's GOP allies are moving cautiously. They won't even try, Hill sources tell NEWSWEEK, to unify behind a particular bill until the fall—hoping to lure Democrats to make a counterproposal first. That will leave plenty of time for more talk, more campaigning, more blogging—and rock concerts.
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
