WASHINGTON – A pair of Senate Republicans on Monday offered separate plans to overhaul Social Security (news – web sites), trying to turn President Bush (news – web sites)’s ideas into legislation that might be able to pass a recalcitrant Congress.
They join the crop of Social Security ideas sprouting like spring flowers. The question for Bush and his backers is will these ideas bloom or will stormy Washington weather blow them away?
One senator suggests reducing benefits as life expectancy rises. Another would cut benefits, but not for the poor. A third offers to raise taxes on the best-paid workers to pay for the private accounts Bush is pushing.
Democrats and their allies continue to pound away at the Bush plan. On Monday, the AFL-CIO trumpeted success in persuading a financial services company, Waddell & Reed, to drop its membership in the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security, a group lobbying for personal accounts. The announcement came a day before the labor federation planned a demonstration at the firm’s headquarters outside Kansas City, Mo.
