Social Security Reform

IF HISTORY HAS TAUGHT US anything, President Bush will spend part of his State of the Union address tonight stressing the importance of achieving energy independence from foreign sources of oil, strengthening Social Security, reducing the costs of healthcare and producing a fiscally responsible budget. After all, he's made these pledges four years in a row without much to show for it, so why stop now?

A growing Republican chorus is calling for a staff overhaul inside President Bush's beleaguered White House, but some conservatives say such a change would stop far short of fixing what they view as a serious flaw: an unfocused domestic agenda.

So President Bush has just now discovered that "America is addicted to oil" (Feb. 1). Where has he been all this time? The people he condemns as liberals have been saying this for years. I would stand up and cheer, grateful that he's finally seen the light, except that I'm now wondering how he plans to cure the addict. With Iraq, Social Security reform, Hurricane Katrina and Medicare prescription drug coverage in mind, I just know there will be big bucks in it for someone, and that someone won't be me. Ethanol from Halliburton, anyone?

Two groups of prominent Democratic centrists plan to oppose the centerpiece of President Bush's proposal to restructure Social Security, potentially dimming administration hopes of building bipartisan support for its top domestic priority.

In a 1946 essay titled "Politics and the English Language," George Orwell observed that all political language is designed "to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." As President Bush begins his second term, he has already demonstrated the truth of Orwell's dictum by persuading much of the windy news media to attach the word "reform" to his plan for fundamental change in the way Social Security is financed.

President Bush wants to overhaul Social Security by putting money management into the hands of the people. He is between a rock and a hard place with this one. On the one hand, you have an estimated 11,000 pork-barrel projects being voted into law by legislators in Congress who are interested in channeling money into their districts so they'll be reelected.

WASHINGTON -- In rooms about 200 miles apart, the two political parties Friday firmed up the battle lines over Social Security. President Bush sought to rally Republicans to support his plan for overhauling Social Security during an appearance at a GOP retreat in West Virginia.

A provocative proposal from the Californian who chairs the House's powerful tax-writing committee may represent a high-risk opportunity to jump-start President Bush's Social Security initiative, even as it underscores the difficulties confronting the administration plan, analysts in both parties say. Rep.

Some of the nation's major business organizations are preparing to enter the fray over restructuring Social Security, spurred by concern that companies could get stuck with the bill if the system faces money shortfalls. The groups, including manufacturers, restaurant owners and small businesses, say they will spend millions of dollars to support President Bush's efforts to create private Social Security investment accounts.

Back in 1997, proponents of overhauling Social Security met with the man who would become their most powerful convert: Texas Gov. George W. Bush, whose presidential ambitions were beginning to gel. The governor dined with Jose Pinera, architect of Chile's 1981 shift from government pensions to worker-owned retirement accounts, in a meeting that helped bring Bush a big step closer to embracing a similar plan for Social Security in his emerging presidential platform.