Reply #4: WP: GOP May Be Splintering on Social Security [View All]

[Pirate Smile]

GOP May Be Splintering on Social Security

By Jonathan Weisman and Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 27, 2005; Page A04

A badly divided Senate Finance Committee yesterday held the first hearing examining President Bush's efforts to restructure Social Security. While the Democrats remained united in their opposition, there were signs of cracks in the Republicans' support for the president.

After months of political positioning, the stakes were high as the committee took up Bush's signature domestic issue for his second term. The White House has framed the Social Security debate as a matter of political courage, challenging both parties to secure the program's long-term solvency while giving all Americans an ownership stake in their economy. But over the course of the president's Social Security tour, public support for Bush's proposal has fallen, and Democrats see the issue as their best chance to make political gains in Washington.

With that highly charged backdrop, Republican divisions at the hearing had added significance.

One GOP witness repeatedly disparaged the White House's approach to Social Security changes, bolstering Democratic contentions that it would lead to politically untenable benefit cuts. Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) questioned the wisdom of adding trillions of dollars in federal debt in the coming decades to finance the president's plan. And Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) seemed to signal intractable opposition to converting part of the defined Social Security benefit to variable returns from stock and bond investments.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/26/AR2005042600213.html