Democrats to highlight Social Security in mid-term elections

RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday July 11, 2006

Social Security privatization is back on the political agenda, this time with Democrats leading the way by reminding voters of the differences between the Republicans and Democrats in the management of the government retirement program, today's ROLL CALL reports.

Democrats hope to gain the political advantage by highlighting the Bush Administration's goal of taking the program private, allowing individuals to establish "retirement accounts" under the program.

Excerpts form the registration-restricted article follow:

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Even before the White House recently hinted that Social Security reform was still on the administration’s radar screen, Democratic leaders and their allies privately had been plotting to resurrect an issue they believe can help inch them to electoral victories this fall.

Democratic Congressional leaders are planning a major event later this month and are looking to tie their “anti-privatization” Social Security message to legislative items moving through Congress in the coming weeks. Senate and House Democrats are still working out the details of their strategy, but leadership aides in both chambers say Members plan to bring the issue up on the floor, at home in their districts, in message events and in radio addresses through November.

“We’re going to look for every opportunity to bring it up,” said one senior Senate Democratic aide. “It’s not going to be just one thing. It’s fair to say you are going to hear people talk about it all the way to the election.”

Democrats believe they can recreate some of the political momentum they gained last year in launching a massive political offensive to sideline the efforts of President Bush to overhaul the entitlement program.

To counter Bush’s argument that the program is broken and will go bankrupt if major revisions are not enacted in the near term, Democrats claimed Bush was trying to put the program in private hands without government protection and create a risky system without guaranteed long-term benefits.

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“President Bush and congressional Republicans have made it clear that they are determined to dismantle Social Security,” the letter sent to Democratic Senators reads. “Democrats stood with the American people in rejecting this privatization scheme.”