Republicans lash out at Democrats, AARP
Wed Mar 2, 2005 03:12 PM ET
By Donna Smith and Caren Bohan
WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - Republican Congressional leaders, frustrated that President George W. Bush's plan to restructure Social Security is failing to win widespread support, lashed out on Wednesday at Democrats and the country's largest retiree organization, who oppose it.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican, criticized Democrats for refusing to negotiate with Republicans.
He also accused the AARP, which represents people aged over 55 and claims 35 million members, of being "hypocritical" for criticizing private Social Security accounts as too risky while selling mutual funds to its members.
"It is incredibly irresponsible to try to convince the American people that there is no problem. It is incredibly irresponsible for the AARP to be against a solution that hasn't even been written yet," DeLay said after a closed-door meeting with Republican members of the House of Representatives.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert said the current pay-as-you-go retirement system was like a "pyramid game" with early participants getting out more than they put in and that it needed change now. He accused Democrats of sticking their head in the sand "like an ostrich" and saying there was no problem.
Recent public opinion polls show waning support for Bush's plan to allow workers to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into individual accounts that can be invested in stock and bond funds.
Republicans say they need to do more to talk about Social Security problems with the coming retirement of the huge baby boom generation and that it was too early to say Bush could face defeat on a top domestic priority.
Senior Bush administration officials plan a 60-day, 60-city campaign to try to build support for the plan, Treasury Secretary John Snow said.
NAYSAYERS CRITICIZED
White House spokesman Scott McClellan criticized "naysayers" who are predicting the failure of Bush's plan.
"The president believes it's important to act this year to strengthen Social Security, because it's a problem that only gets worse with time, and it will only cost more to try and solve it if we wait," he said.
Democrats struck back at Republican criticisms saying Bush was trying to create a crisis in Social Security when the program will be able to pay full retirement benefits for decades to come.
"We're not going to be sucked into the president's plan to have us have meetings with him on something that is not an emergency," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada told reporters.
He said Bush should be addressing more pressing problems like health care, education and huge budget deficits.
Reid also criticized Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan who reiterated his support for individual accounts on Wednesday and told a House panel that lawmakers should act sooner rather than later.
"What I wish Greenspan would tell the Republicans is what he told us when (Bill) Clinton was president, you've got to do something about the deficit. We did," Reid said.
The Fed chief told a budget hearing on Capitol Hill that the country may already have over-promised the level of benefits it can deliver to retirees.
Democrats, feeling no pressure from the public, say they they will not enter into negotiations with Republicans until private investment accounts are taken off the table.
They argue that Bush's proposal would accelerate Social Security's financial problems and force deeper cuts in promised benefits than otherwise would be necessary to shore up the system's finances. Republicans argue that every year of delay adds about $600 billion to the cost of shoring up Social Security.
The AARP believes that diverting payroll taxes away from Social Security will undermine the program and that any problems in the system can be solved by less radical means.
While Republicans accuse Democrats of trying to scare senior citizens about the security of their benefits under the plan, Democrats accuse Republicans of scaring young people into thinking Social Security will not be there for them.
"We're not going to let that happen," Reid said.
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