I'm not sure if this has been diaried, but it should definitely on recommended right now.
It looks like
Olympia Snowe is opposing Bush's Social Security plan.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A key Senate Republican is questioning President Bush's plans to overhaul Social Security, amounting to perhaps the most public GOP skepticism to date of the White House effort.
"I think that public discussions thus far, without a specific proposal, has created and enhanced a lot of confusion and fear among seniors, wondering if their benefits now are going to be cut," Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said Sunday on CNN's "Inside Politics."
Snowe is a self-described moderate on the Senate Finance Committee, which will craft any Social Security overhaul package.
Her stance is likely to be crucial for the fate of Bush's plans to overhaul the system with individual privatized accounts that some critics say would cost as much as $2 trillion to $3 trillion to fund.
Snowe said she was not opposed to the idea of personal savings accounts as long as it was "part of a larger retirement security picture as one dimension" and said she worries about eroding basic tenets of the program.
"I'm certainly not going to support diverting $2 trillion from Social Security into creating personal savings accounts," Snowe said.
As I've been saying, it's the deficit that will kill this thing. Keeping reading.
"The existing program, as it has been developed in the last 70 years, provides a stable monthly income that has prevented seniors, almost 50 percent from falling into poverty. I don't think we want to erode the principles of that system."
Not only was Snowe critical of the White House plan and public relations effort in recent weeks to press the need for reform of Social Security without many details, she also questioned the need for a massive overhaul now.
"There's various scenarios and interpretations about that urgency. I think first we have to get the facts," she said. "There are too many interpretations of the facts, and those scenarios could change based on the variables incorporated in those projections."
Social Security Trustees say the system will begin to put out more money than it takes in in 2018, and it will run out of money in 2042. The Congressional Budget Office projects that shortfall won't happen until 2052.
Maybe my optimism is a little over the top, but I just can't imagine a scenario where we don't have the advantage on this one. Its not nearly a priority to most Americans, its an awkward idea, and it runs the deficit up even further. I have a hard time seeing what Bush could offer some of these equivocating Senators, especially in view of his recent toilet-level Aproval ratings on Rasmussen. But Rove may have things up his sleave I haven't counted on. Guess we'll see.