WP: Panel to Start Writing Social Security Bill [View All]

[Pirate Smile]

Panel to Start Writing Social Security Bill
Both Sides of Personal Account Debate Gird for Battle at Finance Committee

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 24, 2005; Page A04

Five months after President Bush launched his drive to overhaul Social Security, the difficult, if not impossible, task of drafting legislation begins Tuesday when the Senate Finance Committee holds the first hearing on options to secure Social Security's future.

With a cast of Social Security experts well-known in policy circles, the actual hearing is unlikely to produce fireworks. But outside the hearing room, both sides of the Social Security divide are treating the event like a turning point in the war over Social Security's future.

"This is opening salvo in the Congress, and we intend to meet him toe to toe," said Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District of Columbia's delegate to the House.

Liberal activists opposed to Bush's proposal to add private investment accounts to the system plan to canvass Metro stations, farmers markets and other public sites all weekend. Tomorrow, they plan a Capitol Hill news conference with self-identified Republican voters who oppose personal accounts. In New York, Democratic senators and a bevy of Wall Street executives are to highlight what they perceive as the danger of investing Social Security payroll taxes in stocks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12498-2005Apr23.html