House Repubs Tell Bush Voters Hate Personal Accounts

By DHinMI

Looks like the House Republicans may be getting squeamish about Bush’s plans for private accounts for Social Security:

The heart of President Bush's plan for Social Security, allowing younger workers to create personal accounts in exchange for a lower guaranteed government benefit, is among the least popular elements with the public, Republican pollsters told House GOP leaders Tuesday.

The pollsters also stressed the political stakes involved in pursuing Bush's plan to overhaul the Depression-era program, according to a memo circulated at a session in the Capitol.

Older voters consider a candidate's views on Social Security to be "as important, or in some cases, more important than issues like the war, health care and education," they wrote.

Reporting on the results of 14 focus groups held last month in scattered locations, the memo said Bush has been successful in raising awareness of Social Security's financial situation. It also credited the administration with having done a "very good job" of emphasizing that current and near retirees would not be affected by his plan.

At the same time, the public "knows little or nothing about the details and specifics" of Bush's proposal for individual accounts, "and a good bit of what they think they know is incorrect," it said.

Well, that last part is a joke, because there isn’t really a Bush plan out there, just a bunch of talk but nothing on paper. But what’s significant to me is not only the results of the research, but also the fact that the focus groups were conducted by the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, and the results were leaked to the press. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow when there’s more reaction from House Republicans, but to me, this looks like House Republicans sending a message to Bush that they’re not interested in walking the plank for his personal accounts.

So far, the Democrats seem to be playing it smart by just letting the Republicans do all the work in trying to come up with a “solution,” and not contributing any of their own “solutions” that would implicate them and commit them to joining in. And now, it may be that the House Republicans are starting to notice that the White House can’t provide their members enough cover on private accounts. The House Republicans may be starting to act on their own self-interest, which is probably very different than the interests of the White House.

 

Comments

[Incertus]

What's the old saying--give them enough rope...

[DHinMI]

Now let's see if the House Repubs are compliant and slip the noose around their necks.

[srolle]

What did you mean 'the last part was a joke'? I read that article earlier, and I thought they were serious.

But since there isn't a plan, isn't everything they know incorrect?

[Sara]

Any chance folk get, they should be asking Congressional Republicans for a written version of Bush's plan. "How can you debate something clearly unless you have the details at hand?" Both Bush and Congressional Republicans need pinning down on this.

LATE NOTICE: Martin Olav Sabo will be on C-Span Washington Journal at 8AM EST (7:00 AM CST) Wednesday with his Democratic Social Security proposal. As noted here before, Sabo was Chair of the Budget Committee the first two years of Clinton's Administration. He is also leader of Democratic Study Group -- and his proposal does come from the core of House Pregressives.

Josh Marshall has up an essay regarding how Democrats should take their "success" if indeed Bush does either lose, or pull back. I think it is important to frame this possible outcome correctly -- And I would put that in moral terms -- Democrats understand the moral value of fighting to keep dignified retirement security in place, and build on this beloved and successful program. (I also hope someone is taking names of the "immoral privatizers" and raising the money for the ads come 2006.)

[DemFromCT]

we're going to lose on other issues (like bankruptcy) so this first needs to be a wion, then the war on the middle class needs to be tied into a nice package.