Bush asks critics to ease up on Social Security overhaul

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – At the start of a potentially crucial congressional recess, in which lawmakers will hear from constituents about President Bush’s plan to overhaul Social Security, Bush and his allies on Tuesday asked Democrats and the AARP to stop attacking their ideas.

Bush issued the plea alongside his onetime rival for the presidency, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has a better working relationship with Democrats than does the White House.

“I believe there will be a bad political consequence for people who are unwilling to sit down and talk about the issue,” Bush told supporters during one of his staged “conversations” on Social Security, appearing with McCain and New Mexico’s Republican senator, Pete Domenici. “I think the American people expect people from both parties to stand up and take the lead and solve this issue.”

McCain, who was with Bush both Monday and Tuesday for a swing through New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, pointedly addressed the AARP, the 35 million-member group that has galvanized opposition to Bush’s plan among seniors. Choosing his words carefully, McCain accused opponents of wanting to wait on developing a financial fix for the system until 2042 – the year its reserve funds are projected to be depleted, leaving it with more financial obligations than money.

“I want to say to our friends in the AARP, and they are my friends, come to the table with us,” McCain said. “We not only have an obligation to seniors, but we have an obligation to future generations.”

His remarks, which echoed statements made Monday by Vice President Dick Cheney and House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., reflected a recognition by White House strategists that unified Democratic opposition to the Bush-backed overhaul and the continued popularity of AARP are contributing to a decline in public opinion for the president’s performance on Social Security.

Bush wants to let workers born after 1950 divert a portion of their payroll taxes into individual, privately managed retirement accounts invested in stocks and bonds. In return, workers would have to accept a cut in the traditional Social Security benefit.

Bush concedes that the accounts alone would not solve the retirement system’s problem in handling the coming wave of baby-boom retirements. But he casts the accounts as part of a larger plan, which has not yet been spelled out, to shore up the system’s shaky finances.

Opponents charge that creating private accounts would drain money from the system, putting current and future beneficiaries at risk while leaving them vulnerable to the vagaries of the stock market. Critics also disagree with Bush’s claim that the system will soon be in crisis, suggesting that only minor fixes are required, such as adjusting benefits or raising payroll taxes.

An AARP official said McCain was wrong to suggest that the group wanted to wait on a fix, but he added that private accounts were not a viable option.

“We share an interest in resolving this problem sooner rather than later, but we have pretty profound differences on how best to solve it,” said John Rother, AARP’s policy director. Of the group’s opposition to private accounts, he said: “We’re not budging on that.”