GOP Senator to Pitch Plan for Social Security

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) plans to introduce Social Security legislation today that includes a version of President Bush’s proposal to create individual investment accounts -- but also calls for raising the retirement age by a year.

“We need more ideas,” Hagel said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” noting that his bill would be the first, though most likely not the last, Social Security proposal introduced in the Senate this year.

But Democratic lawmakers said that as long as private accounts were on the table, they would adamantly oppose opening negotiations on ways to shore up the retirement system.

“If privatization stays on the table and Social Security is turned into a gamble, I don’t see us getting anywhere, because none of us in the Democratic Party, at least none that I know, is willing to do that,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who also appeared on CBS.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), a centrist whose support Republicans have been courting, also spoke out against the diversion of Social Security taxes into investment accounts.

“I don’t see how you make the problem better by diverting payroll tax revenue that otherwise goes into the Social Security trust fund,” he said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Bush administration officials said the president remained committed to private accounts. And they said they were undeterred by uneasiness among members of the president’s own party and polls showing a decline in support for the accounts.

“We’re still in the early phase of educating the public about why there needs to be change,” White House counselor Dan Bartlett said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Once that is cemented, then members of Congress will feel the pressure that they need to do something.”

Appearing on CNN’s “Late Edition,” Bartlett said some Democrats were “spending more of their time ruling things out as opposed to coming forward with their own solutions.”

But Lieberman appeared open to the idea of raising the retirement age. “One of the ways we may want to fix this problem is by raising the age of eligibility over the long term,” he said.

The exchanges Sunday underscored the continuing difficulty that Bush faced not only in bringing Democrats to the table but in unifying members of his party on the politically sensitive issue of shoring up Social Security, the top domestic priority of his second term.

Bush has said the retirement system needs strengthening to deal with baby boomers rapidly approaching retirement. He has contended that allowing workers born in 1950 and later to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal stock and bond accounts would fatten their retirement nest eggs.

Democrats and other critics say that if money is shifted from the general Social Security fund to private accounts, the government would need to borrow to help pay current benefits. They argue that personal accounts would only increase the government’s debt while doing nothing to improve Social Security’s long-term funding shortfall.

Responding to such criticism, Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said on ABC’s “This Week” that the president was “trying to protect and preserve the system for future generations.... It’s through the personal accounts that young people are given the chance for a better retirement than the system promises them today.”

Hagel’s bill, the Saving Social Security Act, would allow workers under 45 -- instead of those under 55, as the president has proposed -- to move as much as 4% of their payroll tax into investment accounts. It also would raise the retirement age from 67 to 68 and reduce benefits for individuals who retire at a younger age.

Currently, workers who retire at 62 receive 70% of their expected full benefit. Hagel’s bill would lower that figure to 63%.

Hagel’s bill also would add life expectancy to Social Security calculations. By factoring increased life expectancy into the base benefit calculation, the rate of increase in benefit payments will be slowed, according to a summary of the bill provided by Hagel’s office.

Several Republican senators also have been conferring with colleagues about legislation, but Hagel’s bill would be the first introduced in the Senate.

Bills have been introduced in the House, including a proposal by Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.) that seeks to establish investment accounts outside of the Social Security system. Though that idea may draw support from Democrats, it has failed to generate enthusiasm from Republicans.

On CBS, Hagel defended his proposal to create private accounts.

“It’s far too early to take anything off the table,” he said.

A number of Democrats have been receptive to raising the income level subject to the Social Security tax above $90,000. Bush has indicated that he is open to the idea, but some key congressional Republicans have rejected it, calling it a tax increase.