At Social Security Hearing, Bush's Fight Looks Largely Uphill - NYT

[rndmprsn]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/27/politics/27social.html?

WASHINGTON, April 26 - The Senate Finance Committee's first full-scale debate on Social Security raised new doubt Tuesday about whether a majority of the committee would vote for President Bush's proposal for individual investment accounts.

All the Democrats on the panel who spoke said they were resolutely opposed to the president's plan. And the reservations of Republicans were more ominous for the White House.

As a last resort, some administration officials have said, they might be able to keep their plan alive by pushing a private accounts bill through the Finance Committee on a party-line vote rather than in a bipartisan manner. But at the hearing, one Republican, Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, said she did not want to tamper with "the foundation for our seniors," and another, Senator Craig Thomas of Wyoming, expressed concern over the amount of borrowing that proposals like the president's would require...

..."We say to all who would hear us, Social Security is sacred ground for the American people," declared Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader. The Democratic leader of the Senate, Harry Reid of Nevada, said his party would be unrelenting in fighting Mr. Bush's plan.

The rally ended with an image composed to spotlight Democratic determination: scores of lawmakers joining hands next to a giant "Declaration of Unity" placard vowing to "stop privatization."

[carnie_sf]

1. Olympia Snowe

always votes her conscience. She's an old school Republican who reminds me in many ways of Margaret Chase Smith, the R senator from ME who was the first to stand up to Joe McCarthy.