To: calgal who wrote (1158 ) 5/2/2005 2:41:41 AM From: Peter Dierks Respond to of 71588 Dems Reject Bipartisanship on Social Security, Republicans Say (CNSNews.com) - Democrats talk about a bipartisan solution to Social Security, but they don't really want one, the National Republican Congressional Committee said on Thursday. The NRCC points to an Associated Press report saying that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, on Wednesday, forbade members of her caucus from attending a bipartisan meeting to discuss ways of strengthening Social Security. This comes after Pelosi's repeated statements that Democrats are "willing to work in a bipartisan fashion" to find ways of strengthening Social Security. "We should go to the table in a bipartisan way ... and consider all the options available to us," Market News International quoted Pelosi as saying on Jan. 28, 2005. "To be sustainable, any solution must be bipartisan, and the president has no more willing partner than Democrats," she said in an op-ed in The Hill on March 1, 2005. Roll Call noted on March 8 that Chris Wallace, on Fox News Sunday, "tried, in vain, to get House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to offer up even one Democrat idea for fixing Social Security. Six times he posed the question and got nothing but platitudes about former President Ronald Reagan and former Speaker Tip O'Neill (D-Mass.) and promises 'to come together in a bipartisan way at the table.'" Pelosi, in a March 16 press release, said "Democrats want to work with Republicans in a bipartisan way to make any adjustments to keep Social Security solvent after the year 2050." "Nancy Pelosi doesn't want a bipartisan solution to Social Security," said NRCC Communications Director Carl Forti in a press release issued on Thursday. "While Republicans, and a few sensible Democrats, work toward advancing a positive, successful solution for the American people, Democrat leaders will be looking for ways to use this issue for political gain." Forti said Democrats continue to be the "Party of No." That means "No ideas, no solutions, no agenda -- and no majority," he concluded. President Bush is expected to discuss his Social Security reform plan - which is open to suggestions, he insists -- at his prime time press conference Thursday night.townhall.com