GOP signals
fresh effort
on Social Security

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Collins works on alternative; blasts D bill

Evolving ideas
Snow set off concern among conservatives by suggesting Wednesday the administration might consider “add-on” accounts, which do not drain money from the traditional Social Security program. Some proposals would pay for the accounts with general tax revenue; others would require workers to contribute more of their pay.

“I think right now, the more ideas, the better. We like to see ideas,” Snow told reporters. “My preference would be for the sort of proposal that we’ve put forward. On the other hand, we’re prepared to engage people.”

The administration is under time pressures: Senate Finance Committee chairman Charles Grassley, R- Iowa, warned last month that if Social Security legislation “isn’t done this year, it won’t be done for ten years.”

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Meanwhile on Thursday Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan praised the virtues of a consumption tax, which economists such as Laurence Kotlikoff have argued would be one equitable way to help pay the staggering cost of unfunded liabilities for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

According to the General Accountability Office, the government’s fiscal watchdog, the federal government’s net liabilities, unfunded commitments, and other obligations now amount to more than $43 trillion, or about $350,000 for every full-time worker.

Keeping communication open
While most congressional Democrats have flatly refused to negotiate with Bush or GOP leaders until the issue of private accounts is taken off the table, a few Democrats are keeping lines of communication open

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who has been consulting with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, on ideas for legislation, indicated in comments to reporters Tuesday how wary most senators are about committing support to specific ideas for redesigning Social Security.

“It never hurts to talk about ideas, as long you know you’re talking about ideas,” said Nelson. “The challenge is (to ensure) that whatever you’re talked about, doesn’t get reported that that’s your position. … I can talk about an idea or two ideas or three, but I get disturbed when I see that somebody says, ‘He’s going to go for this,’ just because I talked about it.”

Nelson added, “I’m going to look for compromises wherever possible to accomplish something.”

A few Senate Democrats such as Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Sen Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, have offered tax increases as solutions to the Social Security solvency problem but Democratic House and Senate leadership has not signed on to that idea.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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