Tell us swiss cheese, what would you do about social security? Do nothing
and the system eventually goes bankrupt. That's a FACT even the
mena-spirited DemonRats in Congress agree with. But just maybe that's an
outcome the Euros would prefer.

LN


"Swiss Observer" <dpeck@iprolink.ch> wrote in message
news:r12ht05uqi97122oi1d255knu2nnltkeje@4ax.com...

A Big Push On Social Security
By Jim VandeHei
The Washington Post

Saturday 01 January 2005

Private accounts are Bush priority.
President Bush's political allies are raising millions of dollars
for an election-style campaign to promote private Social Security
accounts, as Democrats and Republicans prepare for what they predict
will be the most expensive and extensive public policy debate since
the 1993 fight over the Clinton administration's failed health care
plan.

With Bush planning to unveil the details of his Social Security
plan this month, several GOP groups close to the White House are
asking the same donors who helped reelect Bush to fund an extensive
campaign to convince Americans - and skeptical lawmakers - that Social
Security is in crisis and that private accounts are the only cure.

Progress for America, an independent conservative group that
backed Bush in the campaign, has set aside about $9 million to support
the president's Social Security plan as well as other White House
domestic priorities in the new year, said spokesman Brian McCabe. The
group is asking its donors for much more, he said.

Stephen Moore, head of the conservative Club for Growth, has
raised $1.5 million and hopes to hit a $15 million target when his
fundraising drive ends.

But their contributions are likely to be dwarfed by those from
corporate trade associations, spearheaded by the National Association
of Manufacturers. Other likely contributors include the financial
services and securities industries and other Fortune 500 companies,
GOP officials say. White House officials, led by Karl Rove and Charles
P. Blahous III, the president's policy point man on Social Security,
are helping to shape the public relations campaign, said the
officials, who talked about private discussions with the White House
on the condition of anonymity.

"It could easily be a $50 million to $100 million cost to convince
people this is legislation that needs to be enacted," Moore said.
"It's going to be expensive" because "it's the most important public
policy fight in 25 years," he said.

Republicans are expediting their fundraising plans after learning
that AARP, the influential seniors group that supported Bush's
Medicare program but opposes his Social Security designs, will spend
$5 million in the first two weeks of this month attacking the
president's plan to allow younger workers to invest part of their
Social Security contributions in the stock market. AARP plans to run
full-page ads in 50 large newspapers to coincide with the return of
Congress next week. In one ad, a couple in their forties says, "If we
feel like gambling, we'll play the slots."

AARP will be joined by a large number of Democratic groups,
including the AFL-CIO, the NAACP and the National Organization for
Women. They are coordinating their work with Democratic congressional
leaders, all of whom oppose the private investment accounts.

Both sides say the fight could eventually become the most
expensive lobbying campaign Washington has witnessed because the
stakes are so high for businesses and taxpayers and the issue is so
complex for most Americans.

"As an issue, Social Security has not really been out there in
front of the public," said David Certner, director of federal affairs
at AARP. "It was less of an issue in this past election than it has
been in any election in the past two decades."

Consequently, both sides are rushing to define the problem and
potential solutions just as most Americans start tuning in to the
debate over overhauling the 65-year-old program.

The only point they agree on is that Social Security faces a
long-term financial problem because the U.S. population is growing
older, living longer and, sometime next decade, will be taking more
out of the system in benefits than it is paying in taxes that fund it.
Democrats are divided over how to fix the problem. Some want to raise
taxes; others want to cut benefits or delay the retirement age.

Bush and his GOP allies want to change the system by allowing some
workers to put a percentage of their payroll taxes into private
investment accounts. The president plans to detail his Social Security
plan late this month to coincide with his State of the Union address,
which GOP officials say will place the issue at the top of his
domestic agenda.

Republicans inside and outside the White House said Bush plans to
ask Congress to allow younger Americans to put at least one-third of
the 6.2 percent payroll tax into private accounts, which will offer a
set number of investment options similar to the thrift savings plans
provided to federal workers.

The president has vowed that benefits will remain untouched for
those at or near retirement.

Republicans said Bush is leaning toward cutting benefits for those
who opt for the private accounts. Once he announces the plan, Bush
will campaign as if it is an election, holding rallies and town hall
meetings to promote the plan. A senior White House official said the
president will tell Congress he wants the plan enacted by the end of
this year.

The Republican groups plan to provide the financial muscle, mostly
for ads. According to several officials, the campaign will focus on
several issues that critics say are debatable: that the retirement
system is in crisis, that private accounts are a wise solution and
even smarter investment, and that Bush has a mandate from voters to
fix Social Security because he talked about it during the 2004
campaign. The groups also plan to argue that it is prudent to borrow
money today to cover the transitional costs and avert what they call a
$10.4 trillion unfunded liability in the future. That number
represents the shortfall calculated over the infinite life of the
program.

Although the business groups are divided over how big the accounts
should be and whether they should be accompanied by benefit cuts, the
organizations all plan to swing behind the Bush plan, according to
people involved in the effort. Moore, for instance, is putting
together an ad promoting private accounts that could be ready by the
State of the Union speech.

Corporations will do much of their work through a group called the
Alliance for Worker Retirement Security, which operates out of the
National Association of Manufacturers headquarters here and was once
headed by Blahous. Derrick A. Max, executive director of the alliance,
said the group will probably run its own ads and help fund other
efforts.

"The beginning stage will be focusing on the crisis, the need to
act and the cost of delay," Max said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Go to Original

Bush Faces Challenges with New Republican Congress
By Thomas Ferraro
Reuters

Saturday 01 January 2005

Washington - The 109th Congress convenes on Tuesday with
Republicans flexing more political muscle. Yet it is unclear how far
they can, or in some cases want to, push President Bush's ambitious
second-term agenda.

The record federal deficit, the rising cost of the Iraq war, plus
competing positions of rival Democrats and even within the Republican
Party, all pose risks to such White House goals as overhaul of the
federal tax code and the Social Security retirement program.

Still, Bush has high hopes. He sees his re-election, coupled with
bigger Republican majorities in the Senate and House of
Representatives, as a mandate for his stewardship.

Yet as Rep. Deborah Pryce of Ohio, a member of the House
Republican leadership says: "Everything is going to be hard."

"There are no slam dunks," Pryce said in discussing Bush's
legislative agenda, which also seeks to revamp immigration laws and
obtain a sweeping energy plan.

Rep. Henry Hyde, an Illinois Republican, promises, however, swift
action in putting together an aid package for victims of the deadly
Asian tsunami. "The challenges of coping with suffering on this
magnitude are almost unfathomable," said Hyde, who chairs the
International Relations Committee.

Separately, Bush on Friday pledged $350 million in aid for tsunami
victims.

In the Nov. 2 elections, Republicans expanded their majority in
the 100-member Senate by four to 55 - five short of the 60 needed to
end a Democratic procedural roadblock known as a filibuster.
Republicans boosted their majority in the 435-member House by three to
232.

Yet differences cross party lines on such matters as spending
priorities, possible additional tax relief, changes to immigration
laws and a major restructuring of Social Security.

"I don't expect a highly productive year (in Congress)," said Norm
Ornstein, a congressional scholar at The American Enterprise
Institute, a Washington think thank.

"Even though Republicans have more numbers - and maybe because
they have more numbers - they're going to have real difficulty coming
to agreement among themselves," Ornstein said.

"Increased numbers in the Senate will make them more pugnacious,
but they still don't have enough to jam things through," Ornstein
said.

Larry Sabato of University of Virginia's Center for Politics,
offers a different view. He predicts a "fairly productive" Congress -
for at least half of 2005.

"Historically, a president who is re-elected and adds
congressional seats tends to get to get a good six months window of
opportunity," Sabato said.

"That doesn't mean everything will go smoothly. There will be
fights about everything. That's Washington," Sabato said.

Bush should move fast, though, Sabato said. Traditionally, he
said, lawmakers soon see second-term presidents as "lame ducks" and
focus more on their priorities than his.

United on Some Goals

To be sure, Bush and his fellow Republicans are certain to present
a united front on some goals, such as putting more conservative judges
who oppose abortion on the federal bench.

Congress may also pass legislation Bush seeks to reduce
class-action lawsuits, yet there are doubts about passage of a measure
to limit medical malpractice lawsuits.

Republicans believe they finally may have the votes to win passage
of long-sought legislation to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge to oil drilling.

They intend to take another crack at a proposed constitutional
amendment backed by the White House to ban gay marriage.

While there was plenty of partisan gridlock in the Senate during
the past four years, it could get worse in 2005.

That would be likely if Republicans carry out threats to change
Senate rules to eliminate filibusters on judicial nominees. Democrats
vow to retaliate with other procedural moves that can tie the Senate
into knots.

"Republicans would rue the day they changed the rules," warns
incoming Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

-------

Jump to TO Features for Sunday January 2, 2005
Today's TO Features -------------- Guantanamo Torture Worse Than
Reported Tsunami Warnings Ignored Iraq's Resistors Target
'Collaborators' Conservatives Raise Millions to Privatize Social
Security Preacher Dobson Threatens Democrats The St. Petersburg Times
| Soul-Searching Starts Year Global Warming, Pollution Add to Coastal
Threats Saudi Arabia: Pitched Battles against Al Qaeda's Men Democracy
Week | Ohio Recount Steeped in Fraud Though They Can't Wed, Gays May
Now Divorce Rehnquist Sees Threat to Judiciary Patrick J. Buchanan |
'Stay the Course!' Is Not Enough The Top Ten War Profiteers of 2004
Jared Diamond | The Ends of the World as We Know Them For Iraqis, Not
Much to Celebrate in 2004 t r u t h o u t Home

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes. t r u t h o u t has no affiliation whatsoever
with the originator of this article nor is t r u t h o u t endorsed or
sponsored by the originator.)

Print This Story E-mail This Story



© : t r u t h o u t 2005

| t r u t h o u t | voter rights | environment | letters | donate |
contact | multimedia | subscribe |

Tell us swiss cheese, what would you do about social security? Do nothing
and the system eventually goes bankrupt. That's a FACT even the
mena-spirited DemonRats in Congress agree with. But just maybe that's an
outcome the Euros would prefer.

Tell us swiss cheese, what would you do about social security? Do nothing
and the system eventually goes bankrupt. That's a FACT even the
mena-spirited DemonRats in Congress agree with. But just maybe that's an
outcome the Euros would prefer.

LN


"Swiss Observer" <dpeck@iprolink.ch> wrote in message
news:r12ht05uqi97122oi1d255knu2nnltkeje@4ax.com...

A Big Push On Social Security
By Jim VandeHei
The Washington Post

Saturday 01 January 2005

Private accounts are Bush priority.
President Bush's political allies are raising millions of dollars
for an election-style campaign to promote private Social Security
accounts, as Democrats and Republicans prepare for what they predict
will be the most expensive and extensive public policy debate since
the 1993 fight over the Clinton administration's failed health care
plan.

With Bush planning to unveil the details of his Social Security
plan this month, several GOP groups close to the White House are
asking the same donors who helped reelect Bush to fund an extensive
campaign to convince Americans - and skeptical lawmakers - that Social
Security is in crisis and that private accounts are the only cure.

Progress for America, an independent conservative group that
backed Bush in the campaign, has set aside about $9 million to support
the president's Social Security plan as well as other White House
domestic priorities in the new year, said spokesman Brian McCabe. The
group is asking its donors for much more, he said.

Stephen Moore, head of the conservative Club for Growth, has
raised $1.5 million and hopes to hit a $15 million target when his
fundraising drive ends.

But their contributions are likely to be dwarfed by those from
corporate trade associations, spearheaded by the National Association
of Manufacturers. Other likely contributors include the financial
services and securities industries and other Fortune 500 companies,
GOP officials say. White House officials, led by Karl Rove and Charles
P. Blahous III, the president's policy point man on Social Security,
are helping to shape the public relations campaign, said the
officials, who talked about private discussions with the White House
on the condition of anonymity.

"It could easily be a $50 million to $100 million cost to convince
people this is legislation that needs to be enacted," Moore said.
"It's going to be expensive" because "it's the most important public
policy fight in 25 years," he said.

Republicans are expediting their fundraising plans after learning
that AARP, the influential seniors group that supported Bush's
Medicare program but opposes his Social Security designs, will spend
$5 million in the first two weeks of this month attacking the
president's plan to allow younger workers to invest part of their
Social Security contributions in the stock market. AARP plans to run
full-page ads in 50 large newspapers to coincide with the return of
Congress next week. In one ad, a couple in their forties says, "If we
feel like gambling, we'll play the slots."

AARP will be joined by a large number of Democratic groups,
including the AFL-CIO, the NAACP and the National Organization for
Women. They are coordinating their work with Democratic congressional
leaders, all of whom oppose the private investment accounts.

Both sides say the fight could eventually become the most
expensive lobbying campaign Washington has witnessed because the
stakes are so high for businesses and taxpayers and the issue is so
complex for most Americans.

"As an issue, Social Security has not really been out there in
front of the public," said David Certner, director of federal affairs
at AARP. "It was less of an issue in this past election than it has
been in any election in the past two decades."

Consequently, both sides are rushing to define the problem and
potential solutions just as most Americans start tuning in to the
debate over overhauling the 65-year-old program.

The only point they agree on is that Social Security faces a
long-term financial problem because the U.S. population is growing
older, living longer and, sometime next decade, will be taking more
out of the system in benefits than it is paying in taxes that fund it.
Democrats are divided over how to fix the problem. Some want to raise
taxes; others want to cut benefits or delay the retirement age.

Bush and his GOP allies want to change the system by allowing some
workers to put a percentage of their payroll taxes into private
investment accounts. The president plans to detail his Social Security
plan late this month to coincide with his State of the Union address,
which GOP officials say will place the issue at the top of his
domestic agenda.

Republicans inside and outside the White House said Bush plans to
ask Congress to allow younger Americans to put at least one-third of
the 6.2 percent payroll tax into private accounts, which will offer a
set number of investment options similar to the thrift savings plans
provided to federal workers.

The president has vowed that benefits will remain untouched for
those at or near retirement.

Republicans said Bush is leaning toward cutting benefits for those
who opt for the private accounts. Once he announces the plan, Bush
will campaign as if it is an election, holding rallies and town hall
meetings to promote the plan. A senior White House official said the
president will tell Congress he wants the plan enacted by the end of
this year.

The Republican groups plan to provide the financial muscle, mostly
for ads. According to several officials, the campaign will focus on
several issues that critics say are debatable: that the retirement
system is in crisis, that private accounts are a wise solution and
even smarter investment, and that Bush has a mandate from voters to
fix Social Security because he talked about it during the 2004
campaign. The groups also plan to argue that it is prudent to borrow
money today to cover the transitional costs and avert what they call a
$10.4 trillion unfunded liability in the future. That number
represents the shortfall calculated over the infinite life of the
program.

Although the business groups are divided over how big the accounts
should be and whether they should be accompanied by benefit cuts, the
organizations all plan to swing behind the Bush plan, according to
people involved in the effort. Moore, for instance, is putting
together an ad promoting private accounts that could be ready by the
State of the Union speech.

Corporations will do much of their work through a group called the
Alliance for Worker Retirement Security, which operates out of the
National Association of Manufacturers headquarters here and was once
headed by Blahous. Derrick A. Max, executive director of the alliance,
said the group will probably run its own ads and help fund other
efforts.

"The beginning stage will be focusing on the crisis, the need to
act and the cost of delay," Max said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Go to Original

Bush Faces Challenges with New Republican Congress
By Thomas Ferraro
Reuters

Saturday 01 January 2005

Washington - The 109th Congress convenes on Tuesday with
Republicans flexing more political muscle. Yet it is unclear how far
they can, or in some cases want to, push President Bush's ambitious
second-term agenda.

The record federal deficit, the rising cost of the Iraq war, plus
competing positions of rival Democrats and even within the Republican
Party, all pose risks to such White House goals as overhaul of the
federal tax code and the Social Security retirement program.

Still, Bush has high hopes. He sees his re-election, coupled with
bigger Republican majorities in the Senate and House of
Representatives, as a mandate for his stewardship.

Yet as Rep. Deborah Pryce of Ohio, a member of the House
Republican leadership says: "Everything is going to be hard."

"There are no slam dunks," Pryce said in discussing Bush's
legislative agenda, which also seeks to revamp immigration laws and
obtain a sweeping energy plan.

Rep. Henry Hyde, an Illinois Republican, promises, however, swift
action in putting together an aid package for victims of the deadly
Asian tsunami. "The challenges of coping with suffering on this
magnitude are almost unfathomable," said Hyde, who chairs the
International Relations Committee.

Separately, Bush on Friday pledged $350 million in aid for tsunami
victims.

In the Nov. 2 elections, Republicans expanded their majority in
the 100-member Senate by four to 55 - five short of the 60 needed to
end a Democratic procedural roadblock known as a filibuster.
Republicans boosted their majority in the 435-member House by three to
232.

Yet differences cross party lines on such matters as spending
priorities, possible additional tax relief, changes to immigration
laws and a major restructuring of Social Security.

"I don't expect a highly productive year (in Congress)," said Norm
Ornstein, a congressional scholar at The American Enterprise
Institute, a Washington think thank.

"Even though Republicans have more numbers - and maybe because
they have more numbers - they're going to have real difficulty coming
to agreement among themselves," Ornstein said.

"Increased numbers in the Senate will make them more pugnacious,
but they still don't have enough to jam things through," Ornstein
said.

Larry Sabato of University of Virginia's Center for Politics,
offers a different view. He predicts a "fairly productive" Congress -
for at least half of 2005.

"Historically, a president who is re-elected and adds
congressional seats tends to get to get a good six months window of
opportunity," Sabato said.

"That doesn't mean everything will go smoothly. There will be
fights about everything. That's Washington," Sabato said.

Bush should move fast, though, Sabato said. Traditionally, he
said, lawmakers soon see second-term presidents as "lame ducks" and
focus more on their priorities than his.

United on Some Goals

To be sure, Bush and his fellow Republicans are certain to present
a united front on some goals, such as putting more conservative judges
who oppose abortion on the federal bench.

Congress may also pass legislation Bush seeks to reduce
class-action lawsuits, yet there are doubts about passage of a measure
to limit medical malpractice lawsuits.

Republicans believe they finally may have the votes to win passage
of long-sought legislation to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge to oil drilling.

They intend to take another crack at a proposed constitutional
amendment backed by the White House to ban gay marriage.

While there was plenty of partisan gridlock in the Senate during
the past four years, it could get worse in 2005.

That would be likely if Republicans carry out threats to change
Senate rules to eliminate filibusters on judicial nominees. Democrats
vow to retaliate with other procedural moves that can tie the Senate
into knots.

"Republicans would rue the day they changed the rules," warns
incoming Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

-------

Jump to TO Features for Sunday January 2, 2005
Today's TO Features -------------- Guantanamo Torture Worse Than
Reported Tsunami Warnings Ignored Iraq's Resistors Target
'Collaborators' Conservatives Raise Millions to Privatize Social
Security Preacher Dobson Threatens Democrats The St. Petersburg Times
| Soul-Searching Starts Year Global Warming, Pollution Add to Coastal
Threats Saudi Arabia: Pitched Battles against Al Qaeda's Men Democracy
Week | Ohio Recount Steeped in Fraud Though They Can't Wed, Gays May
Now Divorce Rehnquist Sees Threat to Judiciary Patrick J. Buchanan |
'Stay the Course!' Is Not Enough The Top Ten War Profiteers of 2004
Jared Diamond | The Ends of the World as We Know Them For Iraqis, Not
Much to Celebrate in 2004 t r u t h o u t Home

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes. t r u t h o u t has no affiliation whatsoever
with the originator of this article nor is t r u t h o u t endorsed or
sponsored by the originator.)

Print This Story E-mail This Story



© : t r u t h o u t 2005

| t r u t h o u t | voter rights | environment | letters | donate |
contact | multimedia | subscribe |