Democrats: Bush Social Security plan is 'dead' [View All]

[tuvor]

President Bush's plan to partially privatize Social Security is dead, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in a visit to Pittsburgh yesterday.

Reid along with Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, chairman of the Senate's Democratic Policy Committee, and Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, came to Coraopolis for a town meeting about Social Security.

Afterward, Reid told the Post-Gazette editorial board that he had enough votes in the Senate to block President Bush's proposal to introduce private savings accounts as an alternative to the existing federal retirement plan. "It's dead," Reid said. "The president just hasn't acknowledged it yet."

The minority leader also told the editorial board that the Pennsylvania Senate seat held by Republican Rick Santorum is the Democratic Party's principal target in the 2006 elections. Reid also expressed concern that if Senate rules are changed to put an end to filibusters to delay action on judicial nominees, a vital protection for minority-party rights would be lost.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05113/493250.stm