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ALERT- Bush Social Security Privatizing Plan Is Crumbling!
The Bush Campaign To Privatize Social Security Is Crumbling! Please Take A Moment To Join Our Rolling Letter campaign To Push The Profiteers Over The Edge! We Need As Many As Possible To Flood The New York Times With Letters To Condemn Rep. Jim McCrery! Thanks In Advance For Your Help!
Social Security Now!
socialsecuritynow-subscribe [at] yahoogroups.com
March 1, 2005
--ROLLING LETTER CAMPAIGN--
This weeks target--Target Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana for his role in accepting $200,000 to support the Wall Street profiteers trying to loot the Social Security program!
[Who's Jim McCrery? He's the Republican leader who's key to any Social Security legislation: Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana, is the chairman of the House Social Security subcommittee.]
Make your letters 250 words or less, including your address and phone number where you may be reached during the day.
After accepting $200,000 in dirty money to side with the Wall Street profiteers that want to plunder the Social Security program, it's obvious that Rep. Jim McCrery is not fit to be in his position as chairman of the House Social Security subcommittee!
Send your letters to demand the resignation of Rep. Jim McCrery from his position!!!
Send your letters to the New York Times; Letters [at] NYTimes.com
New York Times
229 W. 43rd Street, NY, NY 10036
212-556-1234
212-556-3690 (fax)
Email: Letters [at] NYTimes.com
New York Times Business Editor(Sunday Edition) - sunbiz [at] nytimes.com
Attn: Mng. Editor
We need to get around 50 letters to the New York Times to demand the resignation of Jim McCrery! Send your letters now!
--Wall Street Scheme To Privatize Social Security In Trouble--
The reports and media articles coming in (see below) show that the Wall Street/Bush Scheme to privatize Social Security and hand it over to corporate control has hit a crisis stage of colossal failure!
The Wall Street/Bush Campaign to privatize Social Security is in a state of panic over the opposition they face on a daily basis! The 2006 elections are in their minds where the Republicans know they will lose control of the House & Senate at this rate if it keeps up!
Thanks to all for joining this group to move so fast in opposition with our Rolling Letter Campaign! Your efforts have helped to shape public opinion against the profiteers and it helped to set off a firestorm of opposition to their scheme to plunder the Social Security program!
Some wondered why the rush to send those letters to the editors. We organized before the Bush scheme could get their campaign off the ground, and those letters helped to fire up the public in opposition to their plan! They did not see us coming!
Bush plans another two weeks of campaigning to turn the tide of opposition. The rich are about to pull the plug on the Bush Campaign to plunder Social Security for political reasons unless they see results, soon.
We must push them over the edge with our opposition and make sure they never try to kill Social Security again!!
We must keep up the pressure to make sure Bush is a complete & total failure!
The Bush campaign has it's weak points that must be exploited to the max!
In addition, we must keep the heat on any Democrats that may waver in support of Bush!
Lets give a big hand to Michael Lyon/Gray Panthers and the 30 protesters or more joining them for todays protest in front of the offices of Senator Diane Feinstine that made this evenings news on KPFA in Berkeley!
Thanks too Michael & friends in the coalition!!!
The permanent tax cuts to the rich are on the fast track (see bottom report) and this must be opposed some how to save the nations domestic programs. Any ideas???
--THANKS TO THOSE AT DOLLARS & SENSE--
An extra special thanks of appreciation goes to those at the magazine called Dollars and Sense that support our efforts in opposition to the profiteers!
In todays e-mails...
[[[Hello --I love the idea of a rolling letter campaign to save Social Security,
and I'm telling everyone I can about your site.
I volunteer with Dollars & Sense, the magazine of economic justice. We
have 30 years' experience demystifying economic issues and promoting social
justice activism, and we have a lot of in-depth and accessible coverage of
Social Security and why privatiziation is wrong. Perfect for re-inspiring
letter writers. Some of this is on our website,
http://www.dollarsandsense.org .
Give it a look and let me know if you think it would be a good resource to link
from your site. We would, of course, reciprocate by linking to your
letter-writing campaign.
Best regards,
Esther Cervantes]]]
Thanks to Esther Cervantes for the kind words to our group! The more of us that unite, the better! Esther please feel free to link us to your site at Dollars & Sense!
A special thanks to Esther from Lynda Carson the Moderator of Social Security Now!
Social Security Now fully supports the efforts of Dollars & Sense and urges it's members to check out the latest from their magazine! Tell your friends to check them out also!
Click below for more about economic justice issues at the below link to their website!
http://www.dollarsandsense.org
Thank you Esther!
Sincerely,
Lynda Carson
829 E. 19th St. #2
Oakland CA. 94606
510/763-1085
--ROLLING LETTER CAMPAIGN--
This weeks target--Target Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana for his role in accepting $200,000 to support the Wall Street profiteers trying to loot the Social Security program!
[Who's Jim McCrery? He's the Republican leader who's key to any Social Security legislation: Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana, is the chairman of the House Social Security subcommittee.]
Make your letters 250 words or less, including your address and phone number where you may be reached during the day.
After accepting $200,000 in dirty money to side with the Wall Street profiteers that want to plunder the Social Security program, it's obvious that Rep. Jim McCrery is not fit to be in his position as chairman of the House Social Security subcommittee!
Send your letters to demand the resignation of Rep. Jim McCrery from his position!!!
Send your letters to the New York Times; Letters [at] NYTimes.com
New York Times
229 W. 43rd Street, NY, NY 10036
212-556-1234
212-556-3690 (fax)
Email: Letters [at] NYTimes.com
New York Times Business Editor(Sunday Edition) - sunbiz [at] nytimes.com
Attn: Mng. Editor
We need to get around 50 letters to the New York Times to demand the resignation of Jim McCrery! Send your letters now!
--Save Social Security From Bush Petition--
Be sure to let people know about the petition thats in opposition to the privatization of Social Security! Since the signature gathering began on February 28, the signatures are starting to roll in from around the country!
Click below to sign a petition to save Social Security from Bush!
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/xyz99900/petition.html
Social Security Now!
In todays report...
Bush Faces Growing Pressure on Social Security
Tue Mar 1, 5:52 PM ET
Politics - Reuters
By Caren Bohan and Donna Smith
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) faces pressure from Republicans to show progress within weeks on his push to restructure Social Security (news - web sites) or risk possible defeat of his top domestic priority.
Underscoring Republican frustration with Bush's effort, the Free Enterprise Fund, a group that is raising money for the drive to overhaul the retirement program, gave a scathing assessment of the strategy pursued by the administration.
"One hates to admit it but, so far, the Bush administration has made a hash of its campaign to allow workers to invest part of their payroll tax contributions in real private assets through personal retirement accounts," the fund's chief economist Larry Hunter wrote in an e-mail.
The group took issue with Bush's move two weeks ago to leave the door open to possibly raising the $90,000 cap on wages subject to the Social Security payroll taxes.
Click below for full story...
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050301/pl_nm/retirement_strategy_dc_3
************
Congress May Hold Off on Social Security
March 1, 2005 33 minutes ago
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON - After a week sampling public sentiment, Republican congressional leaders stressed support Tuesday for President Bush (news - web sites)'s plans to remake Social Security (news - web sites) but conceded final action may not be possible this year.
"This is the mother of all issues," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, adding that opponents of the president's plans "are better organized than we are."
DeLay, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and numerous other GOP lawmakers said Bush's public campaigning has begun to show results. "People have bought into the fact that we have a problem" with Social Security's future financing, said Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia.
At the same time, they said Bush has much more work ahead of him to build support for his plans for personal investment accounts as part of a bill to make Social Security solvent for the long term.
"The president will have to stay out there and lead on it, when a lot of political figures want to run and hide and when you have a lot of people who say there's no problem," Frist, R-Tenn., said in a shot at Democrats.
Republican leaders began surveying their rank-and-file after a weeklong absence from the Capitol as Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid offered his own blunt assessment of the Bush's signature issue. "I don't think the Republicans are very happy about the position the president is putting them in," he said.
"In two months, the president has created a firestorm against" his own plan, taunted Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Click below for full story...
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050302/ap_on_go_co/social_security_9
***********
Top Stories - Knight Ridder Newspapers
Democrats believe they have the upper hand over Bush Social Security plan
Tue Mar 1, 6:06 PM ET
By Steven Thomma, Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Emboldened by public reaction during recent trips home, Democrats returned to Congress on Tuesday claiming the upper hand over President Bush (news - web sites) and his proposal to partly privatize Social Security (news - web sites).
A key conservative strategist all but agreed, saying Bush appears unlikely to win on the issue this year and warning that the president might first have to win a fractious battle within his own party before he can prevail in Congress.
And in a third blow to the centerpiece of Bush's second-term domestic agenda, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, while saying the fight can still be won, lamented Tuesday that so far he's failed to convince two-thirds of his Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives to help sell the president's plan.
Polls as well as comments made in dozens of recent town-hall meetings around the country suggest that the president has failed to build public support for his ambitious proposal - and could be losing ground.
A new Gallup poll this week showed that 35 percent of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling Social Security, his worst showing on any major issue and the lowest on that issue since he took office. A mid-February NBC-Wall Street Journal poll showed support for private accounts dropping to 40 percent from 46 percent since the president launched his aggressive push for them with his State of the Union speech earlier in February.
"It's certainly hurting badly," Rep. Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record), D-Md., the second-ranking House Democrat, said of Bush's proposal after his colleagues measured reaction during last week's recess from Washington.
"In two months, the president has created a firestorm," said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y. After touring his state from Long Island to Buffalo last week to drum up opposition, he said, "the reaction to the president's plan got stronger and stronger and stronger...
Click below for full story...
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/krwashbureau/20050301/ts_krwashbureau/_bc_socialsecurity_wa_1
***********
Article Last Updated: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 - 8:42:41 AM PST
Social Security privatization takes beating
By Keri Brenner, IJ reporter
More than 100 Marin seniors, middle-agers and young adults crammed into a town hall meeting yesterday to blast President Bush's privatization plan for Social Security.
"Bush is not acting in altruism," said Sherry Epley of Mill Valley after the meeting at Corte Madera Town Hall. "He's not acting for anyone other than his wealthy cronies who would benefit from money pouring into the stock market."
Epley, 57, a former Mill Valley Community Association board member, said the beneficiaries of the Bush proposal were "the CEOs of corporations - the same fat cats who benefited from the tax cuts."
The event, organized by U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, was so crowded that even standing room was taken, and the overflow of attendees spilled onto the sidewalk. To accommodate those who could not fit in at the first session at 1:30 p.m., Woolsey and three panelists repeated the event at 3 p.m. for about 30 more people.
"Social Security needs to be protected and strengthened, not wrecked," said Peter Szego of the American Association for Retired Persons, one of the panelists. "It needs a Band-Aid, not an amputation."
Under Bush's plan, Americans under age 55 would be allowed to divert a portion of their Social Security contributions into privately managed individual retirement accounts, similar to 401 (k) plans. The President, who is touring the nation to stump for the plan this week, says his proposal is to fix the Social Security program, which he claims will run out of money by 2042 - an assertion Woolsey and her fellow panelists strongly disputed.
"Repeat after me, 'There is no crisis,'" said Kemble Pope of Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan political action group for young people. "It's just a scare tactic so we will give up what's rightfully ours - a secure future."
Woolsey said Social Security as now set up could pay 100 percent of benefits for the next 40 or 50 years, and about 80 percent after that. She said she would support some "modest reforms," such as raising the income cap for contributing to Social Security - now at $90,000 - instead of dismantling the program.
"He's proposing invasive surgery as a treatment for the common cold," Woolsey said. "Social Security represents what is good and compassionate about our country."
Although the overwhelming majority of people at the meeting were opposed to the privatization plan, Noel Lindsay of Ross said he felt it deserved to be examined in a more balanced forum.
"People my age already refer to Social Security as 'Social Insecurity,'" said Lindsay, 45, a consultant. "We tend to question whether we'll get the benefits we've already been promised."
But Barbara Terhorst of Novato said she was worried the Bush plan would rip out the safety net for her grandchildren that she and her six children had to use starting in 1969. That was the year her husband Bernard, a U.S. Marine Corps pilot, was killed in Vietnam.
"They all received Social Security (survivors' benefits) until they went to college," said Terhorst, 71. "Without it, we would have gone under."
At least a half-dozen supporters of Lyndon LaRouche, a frequent candidate for president, also were on hand to oppose the Bush plan.
The group, mostly young people, distributed a brochure that called the privatization plan a "foot in the door for fascism."
Ens. Damien J. Hansen of San Rafael, an intelligence officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve, said he did not believe most young people supported Social Security privatization.
"I don't buy into the whole crisis idea," said Hansen, 28. "We already have a problem of poverty; this will send more people out on the streeet."
Woolsey told the crowd the only way to defeat the plan was to lobby the president and to support residents of other districts outside the Bay Area in protests to their representatives in Congress.
"We don't have any Republicans to put pressure on," quipped Meredith Cahn of San Anselmo.
Alan Kahn of San Rafael, a retired federal employee, said he thought Bush's plan would benefit primarily Wall Street interests.
"Why should Social Security's monies go to support investment brokerages?" he said.
Contact Keri Brenner via e-mail at kbrenner [at] marinij.co
http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234~24407~2738388,00.html
*************
CBPP Briefing: Unbalancing Act: Will Congress Again Try To Fast-Track Tax Cuts Through The Budget ‘Reconciliation’ Process?
3/1/2005 5:17:00 PM
To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: Michelle Bazie of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 202-408-1080 or bazie [at] cbpp.org
News Advisory:
WHAT: Conference Call Briefing on UNBALANCING ACT: Will Congress Again Try To Fast-Track Tax Cuts Through The Budget "Reconciliation" Process
WHEN: Thursday, March 3 at 11 a.m. (ET)
Register on-line http://www.cbpp.org/confcall.htm
WHO: CBPP staff:
-- Robert Greenstein, executive director
-- Richard Kogan, senior fellow
-- James Horney, senior fellow
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities will hold a media Conference call Thursday, March 3 at 11 a.m. (ET) to discuss a proposal under consideration to use the upcoming Congressional budget resolution to make it easier to pass deficit-increasing tax cuts this year. Both the Senate and House Budget Committees are expected to take up their respective budget resolutions next week.
According to recent media reports, Congressional leaders and the Budget committee chairmen are again considering rules they used in 2001 and 2003 to fast-track tax cuts and reduce from 60 to 51 the number of votes that the tax cuts need to pass the Senate. Congressional leaders are again discussing using the budget "reconciliation" process to protect and ease the passage of tax cuts. Until the past few years, the reconciliation process had been used solely to force deficit-reducing measures on a reluctant Congress, not to make deficit-increasing measures easier to pass.
After short opening statements, the presenters will then take questions on this and other aspects of the debate on the budget that will start in the Budget Committees next week.
EDITOR’S NOTE: To participate, please register by e-mailing bazie [at] cbpp.org, or calling the media team at 202-408-1080. Register online at http://www.cbpp.org/confcall.htm.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=43728
Social Security Now!
socialsecuritynow-subscribe [at] yahoogroups.com
socialsecuritynow-subscribe [at] yahoogroups.com
March 1, 2005
--ROLLING LETTER CAMPAIGN--
This weeks target--Target Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana for his role in accepting $200,000 to support the Wall Street profiteers trying to loot the Social Security program!
[Who's Jim McCrery? He's the Republican leader who's key to any Social Security legislation: Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana, is the chairman of the House Social Security subcommittee.]
Make your letters 250 words or less, including your address and phone number where you may be reached during the day.
After accepting $200,000 in dirty money to side with the Wall Street profiteers that want to plunder the Social Security program, it's obvious that Rep. Jim McCrery is not fit to be in his position as chairman of the House Social Security subcommittee!
Send your letters to demand the resignation of Rep. Jim McCrery from his position!!!
Send your letters to the New York Times; Letters [at] NYTimes.com
New York Times
229 W. 43rd Street, NY, NY 10036
212-556-1234
212-556-3690 (fax)
Email: Letters [at] NYTimes.com
New York Times Business Editor(Sunday Edition) - sunbiz [at] nytimes.com
Attn: Mng. Editor
We need to get around 50 letters to the New York Times to demand the resignation of Jim McCrery! Send your letters now!
--Wall Street Scheme To Privatize Social Security In Trouble--
The reports and media articles coming in (see below) show that the Wall Street/Bush Scheme to privatize Social Security and hand it over to corporate control has hit a crisis stage of colossal failure!
The Wall Street/Bush Campaign to privatize Social Security is in a state of panic over the opposition they face on a daily basis! The 2006 elections are in their minds where the Republicans know they will lose control of the House & Senate at this rate if it keeps up!
Thanks to all for joining this group to move so fast in opposition with our Rolling Letter Campaign! Your efforts have helped to shape public opinion against the profiteers and it helped to set off a firestorm of opposition to their scheme to plunder the Social Security program!
Some wondered why the rush to send those letters to the editors. We organized before the Bush scheme could get their campaign off the ground, and those letters helped to fire up the public in opposition to their plan! They did not see us coming!
Bush plans another two weeks of campaigning to turn the tide of opposition. The rich are about to pull the plug on the Bush Campaign to plunder Social Security for political reasons unless they see results, soon.
We must push them over the edge with our opposition and make sure they never try to kill Social Security again!!
We must keep up the pressure to make sure Bush is a complete & total failure!
The Bush campaign has it's weak points that must be exploited to the max!
In addition, we must keep the heat on any Democrats that may waver in support of Bush!
Lets give a big hand to Michael Lyon/Gray Panthers and the 30 protesters or more joining them for todays protest in front of the offices of Senator Diane Feinstine that made this evenings news on KPFA in Berkeley!
Thanks too Michael & friends in the coalition!!!
The permanent tax cuts to the rich are on the fast track (see bottom report) and this must be opposed some how to save the nations domestic programs. Any ideas???
--THANKS TO THOSE AT DOLLARS & SENSE--
An extra special thanks of appreciation goes to those at the magazine called Dollars and Sense that support our efforts in opposition to the profiteers!
In todays e-mails...
[[[Hello --I love the idea of a rolling letter campaign to save Social Security,
and I'm telling everyone I can about your site.
I volunteer with Dollars & Sense, the magazine of economic justice. We
have 30 years' experience demystifying economic issues and promoting social
justice activism, and we have a lot of in-depth and accessible coverage of
Social Security and why privatiziation is wrong. Perfect for re-inspiring
letter writers. Some of this is on our website,
http://www.dollarsandsense.org .
Give it a look and let me know if you think it would be a good resource to link
from your site. We would, of course, reciprocate by linking to your
letter-writing campaign.
Best regards,
Esther Cervantes]]]
Thanks to Esther Cervantes for the kind words to our group! The more of us that unite, the better! Esther please feel free to link us to your site at Dollars & Sense!
A special thanks to Esther from Lynda Carson the Moderator of Social Security Now!
Social Security Now fully supports the efforts of Dollars & Sense and urges it's members to check out the latest from their magazine! Tell your friends to check them out also!
Click below for more about economic justice issues at the below link to their website!
http://www.dollarsandsense.org
Thank you Esther!
Sincerely,
Lynda Carson
829 E. 19th St. #2
Oakland CA. 94606
510/763-1085
--ROLLING LETTER CAMPAIGN--
This weeks target--Target Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana for his role in accepting $200,000 to support the Wall Street profiteers trying to loot the Social Security program!
[Who's Jim McCrery? He's the Republican leader who's key to any Social Security legislation: Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana, is the chairman of the House Social Security subcommittee.]
Make your letters 250 words or less, including your address and phone number where you may be reached during the day.
After accepting $200,000 in dirty money to side with the Wall Street profiteers that want to plunder the Social Security program, it's obvious that Rep. Jim McCrery is not fit to be in his position as chairman of the House Social Security subcommittee!
Send your letters to demand the resignation of Rep. Jim McCrery from his position!!!
Send your letters to the New York Times; Letters [at] NYTimes.com
New York Times
229 W. 43rd Street, NY, NY 10036
212-556-1234
212-556-3690 (fax)
Email: Letters [at] NYTimes.com
New York Times Business Editor(Sunday Edition) - sunbiz [at] nytimes.com
Attn: Mng. Editor
We need to get around 50 letters to the New York Times to demand the resignation of Jim McCrery! Send your letters now!
--Save Social Security From Bush Petition--
Be sure to let people know about the petition thats in opposition to the privatization of Social Security! Since the signature gathering began on February 28, the signatures are starting to roll in from around the country!
Click below to sign a petition to save Social Security from Bush!
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/xyz99900/petition.html
Social Security Now!
In todays report...
Bush Faces Growing Pressure on Social Security
Tue Mar 1, 5:52 PM ET
Politics - Reuters
By Caren Bohan and Donna Smith
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) faces pressure from Republicans to show progress within weeks on his push to restructure Social Security (news - web sites) or risk possible defeat of his top domestic priority.
Underscoring Republican frustration with Bush's effort, the Free Enterprise Fund, a group that is raising money for the drive to overhaul the retirement program, gave a scathing assessment of the strategy pursued by the administration.
"One hates to admit it but, so far, the Bush administration has made a hash of its campaign to allow workers to invest part of their payroll tax contributions in real private assets through personal retirement accounts," the fund's chief economist Larry Hunter wrote in an e-mail.
The group took issue with Bush's move two weeks ago to leave the door open to possibly raising the $90,000 cap on wages subject to the Social Security payroll taxes.
Click below for full story...
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050301/pl_nm/retirement_strategy_dc_3
************
Congress May Hold Off on Social Security
March 1, 2005 33 minutes ago
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON - After a week sampling public sentiment, Republican congressional leaders stressed support Tuesday for President Bush (news - web sites)'s plans to remake Social Security (news - web sites) but conceded final action may not be possible this year.
"This is the mother of all issues," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, adding that opponents of the president's plans "are better organized than we are."
DeLay, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and numerous other GOP lawmakers said Bush's public campaigning has begun to show results. "People have bought into the fact that we have a problem" with Social Security's future financing, said Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia.
At the same time, they said Bush has much more work ahead of him to build support for his plans for personal investment accounts as part of a bill to make Social Security solvent for the long term.
"The president will have to stay out there and lead on it, when a lot of political figures want to run and hide and when you have a lot of people who say there's no problem," Frist, R-Tenn., said in a shot at Democrats.
Republican leaders began surveying their rank-and-file after a weeklong absence from the Capitol as Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid offered his own blunt assessment of the Bush's signature issue. "I don't think the Republicans are very happy about the position the president is putting them in," he said.
"In two months, the president has created a firestorm against" his own plan, taunted Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Click below for full story...
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050302/ap_on_go_co/social_security_9
***********
Top Stories - Knight Ridder Newspapers
Democrats believe they have the upper hand over Bush Social Security plan
Tue Mar 1, 6:06 PM ET
By Steven Thomma, Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Emboldened by public reaction during recent trips home, Democrats returned to Congress on Tuesday claiming the upper hand over President Bush (news - web sites) and his proposal to partly privatize Social Security (news - web sites).
A key conservative strategist all but agreed, saying Bush appears unlikely to win on the issue this year and warning that the president might first have to win a fractious battle within his own party before he can prevail in Congress.
And in a third blow to the centerpiece of Bush's second-term domestic agenda, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, while saying the fight can still be won, lamented Tuesday that so far he's failed to convince two-thirds of his Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives to help sell the president's plan.
Polls as well as comments made in dozens of recent town-hall meetings around the country suggest that the president has failed to build public support for his ambitious proposal - and could be losing ground.
A new Gallup poll this week showed that 35 percent of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling Social Security, his worst showing on any major issue and the lowest on that issue since he took office. A mid-February NBC-Wall Street Journal poll showed support for private accounts dropping to 40 percent from 46 percent since the president launched his aggressive push for them with his State of the Union speech earlier in February.
"It's certainly hurting badly," Rep. Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record), D-Md., the second-ranking House Democrat, said of Bush's proposal after his colleagues measured reaction during last week's recess from Washington.
"In two months, the president has created a firestorm," said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y. After touring his state from Long Island to Buffalo last week to drum up opposition, he said, "the reaction to the president's plan got stronger and stronger and stronger...
Click below for full story...
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/krwashbureau/20050301/ts_krwashbureau/_bc_socialsecurity_wa_1
***********
Article Last Updated: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 - 8:42:41 AM PST
Social Security privatization takes beating
By Keri Brenner, IJ reporter
More than 100 Marin seniors, middle-agers and young adults crammed into a town hall meeting yesterday to blast President Bush's privatization plan for Social Security.
"Bush is not acting in altruism," said Sherry Epley of Mill Valley after the meeting at Corte Madera Town Hall. "He's not acting for anyone other than his wealthy cronies who would benefit from money pouring into the stock market."
Epley, 57, a former Mill Valley Community Association board member, said the beneficiaries of the Bush proposal were "the CEOs of corporations - the same fat cats who benefited from the tax cuts."
The event, organized by U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, was so crowded that even standing room was taken, and the overflow of attendees spilled onto the sidewalk. To accommodate those who could not fit in at the first session at 1:30 p.m., Woolsey and three panelists repeated the event at 3 p.m. for about 30 more people.
"Social Security needs to be protected and strengthened, not wrecked," said Peter Szego of the American Association for Retired Persons, one of the panelists. "It needs a Band-Aid, not an amputation."
Under Bush's plan, Americans under age 55 would be allowed to divert a portion of their Social Security contributions into privately managed individual retirement accounts, similar to 401 (k) plans. The President, who is touring the nation to stump for the plan this week, says his proposal is to fix the Social Security program, which he claims will run out of money by 2042 - an assertion Woolsey and her fellow panelists strongly disputed.
"Repeat after me, 'There is no crisis,'" said Kemble Pope of Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan political action group for young people. "It's just a scare tactic so we will give up what's rightfully ours - a secure future."
Woolsey said Social Security as now set up could pay 100 percent of benefits for the next 40 or 50 years, and about 80 percent after that. She said she would support some "modest reforms," such as raising the income cap for contributing to Social Security - now at $90,000 - instead of dismantling the program.
"He's proposing invasive surgery as a treatment for the common cold," Woolsey said. "Social Security represents what is good and compassionate about our country."
Although the overwhelming majority of people at the meeting were opposed to the privatization plan, Noel Lindsay of Ross said he felt it deserved to be examined in a more balanced forum.
"People my age already refer to Social Security as 'Social Insecurity,'" said Lindsay, 45, a consultant. "We tend to question whether we'll get the benefits we've already been promised."
But Barbara Terhorst of Novato said she was worried the Bush plan would rip out the safety net for her grandchildren that she and her six children had to use starting in 1969. That was the year her husband Bernard, a U.S. Marine Corps pilot, was killed in Vietnam.
"They all received Social Security (survivors' benefits) until they went to college," said Terhorst, 71. "Without it, we would have gone under."
At least a half-dozen supporters of Lyndon LaRouche, a frequent candidate for president, also were on hand to oppose the Bush plan.
The group, mostly young people, distributed a brochure that called the privatization plan a "foot in the door for fascism."
Ens. Damien J. Hansen of San Rafael, an intelligence officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve, said he did not believe most young people supported Social Security privatization.
"I don't buy into the whole crisis idea," said Hansen, 28. "We already have a problem of poverty; this will send more people out on the streeet."
Woolsey told the crowd the only way to defeat the plan was to lobby the president and to support residents of other districts outside the Bay Area in protests to their representatives in Congress.
"We don't have any Republicans to put pressure on," quipped Meredith Cahn of San Anselmo.
Alan Kahn of San Rafael, a retired federal employee, said he thought Bush's plan would benefit primarily Wall Street interests.
"Why should Social Security's monies go to support investment brokerages?" he said.
Contact Keri Brenner via e-mail at kbrenner [at] marinij.co
http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234~24407~2738388,00.html
*************
CBPP Briefing: Unbalancing Act: Will Congress Again Try To Fast-Track Tax Cuts Through The Budget ‘Reconciliation’ Process?
3/1/2005 5:17:00 PM
To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: Michelle Bazie of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 202-408-1080 or bazie [at] cbpp.org
News Advisory:
WHAT: Conference Call Briefing on UNBALANCING ACT: Will Congress Again Try To Fast-Track Tax Cuts Through The Budget "Reconciliation" Process
WHEN: Thursday, March 3 at 11 a.m. (ET)
Register on-line http://www.cbpp.org/confcall.htm
WHO: CBPP staff:
-- Robert Greenstein, executive director
-- Richard Kogan, senior fellow
-- James Horney, senior fellow
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities will hold a media Conference call Thursday, March 3 at 11 a.m. (ET) to discuss a proposal under consideration to use the upcoming Congressional budget resolution to make it easier to pass deficit-increasing tax cuts this year. Both the Senate and House Budget Committees are expected to take up their respective budget resolutions next week.
According to recent media reports, Congressional leaders and the Budget committee chairmen are again considering rules they used in 2001 and 2003 to fast-track tax cuts and reduce from 60 to 51 the number of votes that the tax cuts need to pass the Senate. Congressional leaders are again discussing using the budget "reconciliation" process to protect and ease the passage of tax cuts. Until the past few years, the reconciliation process had been used solely to force deficit-reducing measures on a reluctant Congress, not to make deficit-increasing measures easier to pass.
After short opening statements, the presenters will then take questions on this and other aspects of the debate on the budget that will start in the Budget Committees next week.
EDITOR’S NOTE: To participate, please register by e-mailing bazie [at] cbpp.org, or calling the media team at 202-408-1080. Register online at http://www.cbpp.org/confcall.htm.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=43728
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