In the dead of night, probably determined not to embarass a reeling president, the House worked on a SS bill
without private accounts.
WASHINGTON - With the acquiescence of their leaders, key House Republicans are drafting
Social Security legislation stripped of
President Bush's proposed personal accounts financed with payroll taxes and lacking provisions aimed at assuring long-term solvency.
Instead, according to officials familiar with the details, the measure showcases a promise, designed to reassure seniors, that Social Security surplus funds will be held inviolate, available only to create individual accounts that differ sharply from Bush's approach.
That sound you heard was all the rats jumping ship.
In addition, the GOP bill "doesn't deal with solvency," according to another official, indicating it would avoid the difficult choices of curbs on benefits, higher taxes or changes in the retirement age needed to implement the president's call for long-term financial stability.
So what could the bill possibly involve? After pushing for solvency for so long?
The officials who discussed the measure Tuesday did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were barred from disclosing details until a formal release Wednesday.
...
Either way, the emerging legislation marked the latest blow to Bush, who has said repeatedly he intended to spend the political capital gained in last fall's re-election to win fundamental changes in Social Security. The president has traveled to more than two dozen states since last winter trying to build support. Polls have shown his recommendations generate insufficient popularity to galvanize Republican lawmakers to action.
Instead, with Democrats unified in opposition and threatening to use the issue in the 2006 elections, GOP leaders have been reluctant to act.
No Republican wants to be associated with this turkey. What a huge win for Democrats.
Apart from Bennett, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., is crafting legislation along the lines of the bill being prepared in the House.
In an interview, DeMint said the measure was designed to mark the first step on a longer road toward transforming Social Security, a recognition that Congress isn't ready to enact everything the president wants.
He, too, indicated the bill was designed to outflank Democrats.
"The party of 'no' will have a hard time saying 'no' to saving Social Security," he said.
Um, saving social security, but without any measure in it to deal with solvency? Bush campaigned about this for months, and now it's being abandoned? Bush spent his "political capital" on a DOA project that had to be buried in the dead of night? This sounds like a really really big pie in the face of Republicans, and you can't spin that.