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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Grassley urges Social Security negotiation

Glen Johnson Associated Press

WASHINGTON – A Senate Republican urged Democrats on Monday to negotiate about Social Security, even if they just say “no” to a plan with personal investment accounts favored by President Bush.

Democrats have expressed doubts about legislation that includes investment accounts, and want that aspect of the legislation dropped before they get involved in discussions.

“You know, they ought to be sitting down at the table, talking to us about solvency, and if they want, it gives them an opportunity … to say, ‘You know, we’ll agree to do this much, but if you’re going to have personal accounts in there, we aren’t going to do it,’ ” said Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa. The Senate Finance Committee, which Grassley heads as chairman, takes up the issue on Wednesday.

Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the top Democrat on the panel, said he would negotiate with Grassley only if the president publicly disavows the accounts, which Bush has conceded will not improve the program’s solvency.

“Otherwise it’s bait-and-switch because they’ve got the majority,” Baucus said. “We go to conference (committee) and they say, ‘Oh no we’re just going to talk solvency,’ and lo and behold, they’re in. We’re not going to engage in bait-and-switch.”

The committee hearing will, for a second time, focus on the federal retirement program’s long-term financial challenges. In the House, the panel’s counterpart – the Ways and Means Committee – had three hearings in a week and two more scheduled for this week – suggesting a more rapid pace towards producing legislation.

“I just hope that by talking about solvency enough, we’re able to get Congress to moving on Social Security,” Grassley said. He said he and Rep. Bill Thomas, the California Republican who heads the Ways and Means Committee, will proceed on separate tracks until they get to a House-Senate conference committee. That committee would work to resolve any differences in the competing versions of the legislation.

To this point, Democrats in both the House and Senate have refused to participate in any discussions until Bush drops his insistence on the accounts. The president wants to pay for them by diverting a portion of the payroll taxes now used to pay benefit checks not only for retirees, but the disabled and spouses and children of workers.

Democrats say Bush and the Republicans are trying to destroy the program and shift it from providing a guaranteed government benefit to one in which workers manage their own benefits subject to the fluctuations of the stock market.

One Republican on Grassley’s committee, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, has said she cannot support the proposal, making it unlikely the panel can produce a bill that includes language on investment accounts.

In an interview, Grassley thanked Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., for offering a Social Security proposal last week, even though it called for a stiff 6-percent tax hike of the nature already ruled out by Bush.

“I think just the fact that he felt it was good to introduce a bill is very significant,” Grassley said. “It’s the first movement on any Democrat’s part.”