Social Security Reform:
President Bush wanted to clarify for his conservative base that he is not backing away from personal retirement accounts for Social Security.
1) Bush was upset that his encouragement of Sen. Bob Bennett’s (R.-Utah) reform plan—which does not include personal accounts—was taken out of context and construed as a retreat from personal accounts. Bennett, whose plan reduces Social Security benefits for those with higher incomes, thinks that his new approach will win Democratic support for Social Security reform—although such hopes are probably in vain.
2) Another plan, announced by Rep. Jim McCrery (R.-La.), Rep. Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R.-S.C.), would create personal accounts that contain the U.S. Savings Bonds that enter the Social Security trust fund from the Social Security surplus. This plan would retain Bush’s personal account concept but without the risk of stock investments and without taking money from the payroll tax. The idea would be to personalize the existing bonds and then expand the accounts later on.
3) Bush’s problem, though, is that he has de-emphasized personal accounts—potentially the most attractive feature of his reform plan—in favor of an unpopular discussion of benefit cuts and solvency. He has done this for so long that he might as well abandon personal accounts, because after so much debate and so little progress, no one expects movement on Social Security reform during this Congress. This issue has been quietly put on the back burner by the administration.
Stem Cells:
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.) wants quick Senate passage this summer of the House-approved embryonic stem cell research bill—sending it to the White House for Bush’s veto.
1) Frist would prefer not to engage in the protracted debate and guerilla obstruction techniques desired by many social conservatives. A struggle in the Senate to sink a bill that probably has 70 votes behind it could be harmful to the re-election hopes of Sen. Rick Santorum (R.-Pa.), who opposes the bill. Santorum, a social conservative who faces an uphill fight for re-election, feels that this issue is a political loser for him—as do many social conservatives. He opposes the bill but he wants to let it pass and be vetoed by Bush right away, with as little fuss as possible.
2) A Bush veto, however—perhaps the first of his administration—could have its own political repercussions. Many Republicans, apprehensive about the 2006 election outlook, recall that Democrats suffered at the polls after President Bill Clinton’s 1997 veto of a bill banning partial-birth abortion.
3) The embryonic stem cell research funding bill may be allowed to come to the floor on the condition that there is also a floor vote to ban human cloning. This ban, which has passed the House repeatedly and by wide margins, has never received a Senate vote before. It is believed to be very close to the 50 votes needed for passage, thanks to a net gain of five anti-cloning senators in the 2004 election.
Powell Nomination:
It took only the slightest pressure to force Sen. Joe Biden (D.-Del.) to drop his hold on the non-controversial nomination of Dina Powell as assistant secretary of State for educational and cultural affairs. Biden, who is described by friends as 50-50 about making a run for President in 2008, had been trying to pressure Bush into reappointing his friend, patron and erstwhile illegal fund-raiser, Norman Pattiz, to the Broadcasting Board of Governors. But one day after this revelation was reported by the Evans & Novak column, Biden gave up and the Senate unanimously confirmed Powell.
