'Explosive' News - Reform Could Pick up 30-40 Democrats

Andrew Roth

This is very encouraging. From the Wall Street Journal's Political Diary ($):

We sat down with Rep. Clay Shaw, a Florida Republican, to talk about the deal to create private Social Security accounts that he helped hammer out this week. He's a soft-spoken man but what he had to say was explosive. The bill now moving forward in Congress would create the accounts by using Social Security's "surplus," the money paid in payroll taxes every year but not used to pay benefits. The program is going to remain in surplus until 2016. Asked if Republicans could pass this reform to the system on a party-line vote he answered simply, "Yes. We could roll Democrats on this." This from the man who crafted his own Social Security plan earlier this year to create private accounts without scaring off all the Democrats. His plan was to leave the system intact and to create "add-on" private accounts of up to $1,000 a year with money from the general revenue -- in effect a new program. His confidence in moving forward now even without Democratic support stems from what he's hearing from his constituents back home. Social Security isn't the third rail in politics it used to be, but voters are still angry over Congress raiding the program and spending the surplus every year. The question Democrats now have to answer, he said, is: "What are they going to do with the surplus?" He also believes that when it comes to a vote, as many as 30 or 40 Democrats will likely jump onboard for two reasons. One, this bill is going to be rolled into a larger package to include pension and other reforms aimed at helping older Americans. And secondly, Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have put a "gag order" on their party, preventing members from saying anything positive about Republican reform proposals. "But you can't stay silent on a vote," he said. What's more, this bill isn't the "exit strategy" everyone was looking for, "it's an entrance strategy," he said. Once the 130 million Americans who would be eligible start to see their personal accounts grow, "the comfort level" with private accounts will grow too. In other words, look for other, more sweeping reforms to come down the road. Not that Mr. Shaw hopes the Democrats will get rolled on every reform. On Thursday Rep. Charlie Rangel, a New York Democrat, was seen chatting with Rep. Paul Ryan, one of the key Republican architects of the recent deal, at a hearing and saying positive things about the plan. "I could do business with Rangel," Mr. Shaw told us.

Posted by Andrew Roth on June 24, 2005 2:34 PM to Social Security Choice