Bush Sees Democracy as Winner of Iraq Vote

President Bush, addressing concerns that low turnout might undermine the legitimacy of this weekend’s election in Iraq, said Wednesday that the fact that Iraqis were voting at all represented a triumph of democracy over oppression.

Bush urged Iraqis to participate in Sunday’s balloting despite the ongoing campaign of violence from insurgents who he said had “declared war on democracy itself.”

Turning to his top domestic policy priority, Bush indicated a willingness to compromise with Congress on the details of Social Security restructuring, but said he first planned to take his case for worker-owned investment accounts to the American people.

“The Congress tends to listen to the people,” Bush said in a wide-ranging White House news conference, the first of his new term. “I am heartened by past experiences to believe that it is possible to do big things in Washington, D.C.”

Bush repeated last week’s pledge to prod foreign leaders to embrace democratic reforms, promised to pursue politically difficult immigration law changes, said the White House was still on track to halve the federal deficit, and directed his Cabinet secretaries to stop paying columnists to promote administration programs.

The remarks appeared to be intended to shore up support for some of the administration’s more contentious initiatives at a time when Republican euphoria over Bush’s reelection was tempered by questions from lawmakers about whether the White House agenda might hurt their reelection prospects.

Bush said he expected millions of Iraqis to participate in Sunday’s election, but acknowledged that many potential voters had been intimidated by insurgents and would not take part.

Even so, he said, the elections represented a repudiation of terrorism and “a grand moment in Iraqi history.”

“The fact that they’re voting, in itself, is successful,” Bush said.

Later in the day, the president sat for an interview with the Arabic-language Al Arabiya satellite channel, based in the United Arab Emirates.

“I’d like to say one thing to the Iraqi people,” he told an interviewer. “This is a historic opportunity for the people of Iraq to vote for a government. And I want to express my appreciation for the courageous Iraqis who are willing to step forth and promote democracy, and urge all the citizens in Iraq to vote and to show the terrorists they cannot stop the march of freedom.”

Bush’s remarks appeared to be part of an effort by administration officials to portray Sunday’s election as one step in a long-term process of helping Iraq establish democratic institutions after decades of oppressive rule by Saddam Hussein.

Other steps, such as the writing of a constitution and the establishment of adequate security forces, are equally important, he suggested. Bush said America intended to remain engaged for as long as it took to see the process through.

But one prominent Democrat accused the president of setting too low a standard for judging success in the Sunday balloting.

“We have a situation which is so unstable and has such insecurity that in some regions of the country there is chaos,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said in an interview with CNN. “So I don’t think the president’s standard is anywhere near high enough for the lives lost, the now up to $300 billion committed, and the loss of reputation in the world for our country.”

Bush addressed the turmoil in Iraq hours after a Marine helicopter crash claimed the lives of 31 U.S. military personnel and attacks killed several Americans and Iraqis.

The president lashed out at critics who compared U.S. involvement in Iraq to its difficult history in Vietnam.

“I think the Iraqi people are wondering whether or not this nation has the will necessary to stand with them as a democracy evolves,” he said. “The enemy would like nothing more than the United States to precipitously pull out and withdraw before the Iraqis are prepared to defend themselves.”

On Social Security, Bush said he was willing to take political heat on a subject that had prompted misgivings among Republican lawmakers. Democrats are uniting in opposition to his plan to let younger workers divert some of their payroll taxes into private investment accounts.

The president met Wednesday with House Republican leaders and GOP members of the House Ways and Means Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield), had questioned whether Bush’s plan could win congressional approval without significant changes. He held a similar meeting Tuesday with Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee to try to muster support for his approach.

After Wednesday’s session, Ways and Means Committee member Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.) said Bush would present a more detailed outline of his overhaul plans in his State of the Union address to Congress on Wednesday.

“If there was any doubt that he is going to follow through on his intention to reform Social Security, that was dispelled,” Shaw said.

Bush said his talks with lawmakers were only the beginning. He said he planned to pitch his restructuring ideas directly to the American people next month in a series of town hall meetings across the country.

“Social Security has been an issue that has made people nervous,” he said. “I understand that. I mean, people felt like it was the third rail of American politics. That means if you touch it ... it will be political death.

“I’m looking forward to leading the Congress. And I’m looking forward to taking the case to the American people,” he said.

Bush said his initial objective was to convince the country that the retirement system was headed toward bankruptcy unless something was done to bridge the gap between projected payroll tax collections and benefit payouts in coming decades.

Congressional Democrats have accused Bush of exaggerating the extent of the system’s problems, noting that payroll tax collections are expected to exceed benefit payouts until at least 2018, and that the Social Security trust fund is projected to show a surplus until at least 2042. Even then, revenue would be sufficient to pay roughly three-quarters of promised benefits.

The president, said Rep. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.), “should stop trying to scare the American people into believing that a crisis exists in order to carry out his privatization plans and dismantle Social Security.”

Bush seemed to acknowledge Wednesday, more explicitly than in the past, that personal accounts would not by themselves bridge the financing gap and that some reduction in the promised level of future benefits would be needed as well.

“I fully understand that [personal] accounts is not the only thing that will be necessary to make sure the system is permanently secure,” Bush said. But he declined to discuss specific proposals, saying the issue of financing would be taken up “at the appropriate time.”

Bush also said he planned to push Congress to revise the nation’s immigration laws by creating a guest-worker program to fill some of the jobs that had attracted millions of foreigners to enter this country illegally.

Responding to revelations that the departments of Education and Health and Human Services had paid columnists to promote administration policies, Bush said he was directing all agencies to curtail the practice, without exceptions.

“All our Cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda,” Bush said. “Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet.”

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Times staff writer Richard Simon contributed to this report.