Bush Gets Personal on Social Security
WASHINGTON — The president invited the small group of Republican congressmen to his living room on the second floor of the White House -- not the formal offices he usually presides over -- to talk about Social Security. While his guests sipped soda and munched peanuts, he did something even more remarkable.
He listened to them. He took criticism from them. For the better part of an hour, President Bush -- who has been accused of taking a "my way or the highway" approach to Congress -- was all ears.
"He didn't cut anybody off," said Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.). "He didn't try to debate us. Sometimes he's more argumentative."
That at-home meeting in March was one of dozens that Bush has held over the last three months to coax Republicans to set aside their qualms about his drive to overhaul Social Security. The lobbying effort -- less visible than his high-profile 60-day campaign to promote his Social Security plan around the country -- has had Bush more personally and deeply engaged with lawmakers than at any other time in his presidency.
That effort has brought more than 160 House and Senate Republicans to the White House in small groups, given many lawmakers face time with Bush aboard Air Force One and brought dozens to events where Bush has addressed their constituents on Social Security.
The lobbying drive has apparently done little to change minds and bump up the congressional vote count, but the White House says it never intended this stage of the campaign to be an arm-twisting enterprise.
Still, the fact that Bush has had to mount such a full-court press even within his own party is a measure of just how difficult a political task he faces -- and how much the dynamic between the White House and Congress has changed in his second term.
Though some Republicans in Congress have complained that Bush took them for granted in his first term, or ignored them unless they were rebelling against the party line, they can hardly make that charge now.
"He's out there and making sure he's talking to all of us -- a lot -- and not just when
At issue is Bush's ambitious effort to restructure Social Security. He wants to allow younger workers to divert a portion of their payroll taxes into individual investment accounts. In return, workers would probably be required to give up a portion of their traditional Social Security benefit.
