Bush Warns Social Security Critics

Say Lawmakers Who Oppose Him Could Pay A Political Price

(CBS/AP) 
Mr. Bush wants to allow younger workers to set up private investment accounts with part of their Social Security taxes. The president also is calling on Congress to approve a permanent fix to Social Security's solvency problems, something he has acknowledged private accounts will not accomplish. He has not specified what benefit cuts or other changes he supports to address the program's long-term fiscal ills.

Timed to coincide with the president's visit, the AARP held a news conference in Cedar Rapids earlier Wednesday to release the results of a national survey showing significant opposition within its membership to Mr. Bush's private accounts plan.

Notwithstanding a host of other, independent polls showing waning public support for his proposal, Mr. Bush focuses only on the part of the surveys that shows the public is — as it long has been — aware of the program's long-term fiscal problems. But though he insists he is making headway on the issue, the lingering skittishness among congressional Republicans — and outright opposition from most Democrats — indicates otherwise.

Mr. Bush's stop was in the district of Republican Rep. Jim Leach, who has found skepticism among many constituents for the Social Security changes Mr. Bush is pushing. It also took the president to the home state of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley — the man assigned to put his Social Security ideas into a bill that can pass Congress.

The Iowa Republican, who introduced Mr. Bush at the event, likewise has found little support among fellow Iowans and has said that the odds are against Congress approving the president's proposal. Nonetheless, Grassley intends to bring the matter before his committee starting this summer.

"We got to turn up the heat on Washington, D.C., to see this as an issue and get a bipartisan agreement to get something done," Grassley said.