GOP goes it alone on private accounts
Frustration evident as hearings begin on Social Security
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
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Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Washington -- Key Senate Finance Committee Republicans vowed Tuesday to forge ahead without Democrats on President Bush's idea to include private investment accounts in Social Security.
But as Bush's 60-day, 60-city tour to sell the accounts drew to a close, what was evident on Capitol Hill was the contrast between Republican frustration in the committee room and glee among a large contingent of Democrats at a noisy union-led anti-privatization rally in a sunny park across the street.
Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, outlined a process over the next two to three months that will force the high-powered Republicans on his panel to accept benefit cuts and tax increases necessary to make the giant retirement program permanently solvent, while including the private accounts that Bush and most of his party want but Democrats steadfastly oppose.
Two hours later, the daunting odds that the plainspoken Iowa farmer faces were made obvious. Two Democrats who had made friendly gestures of bipartisanship in the hearing room -- Max Baucus of Montana and Ron Wyden of Oregon -- joined the rally across the street vowing to save Social Security from Bush's devices.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/27/MNGMICG0SQ1.DTL
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