GOP to tout Social Security accounts

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's political allies are raising millions of dollars for an election-style campaign to promote private Social Security accounts.

Democrats and Republicans are preparing for what they predict will be the most expensive and extensive public-policy debate since the 1993 fight over the Clinton administration's healthcare plan, which was not enacted.

As Bush plans to unveil the details of his Social Security plan this month, several GOP groups close to the White House are asking the same donors who helped reelect Bush to fund an extensive campaign to persuade Americans, and skeptical legislators, that Social Security is in crisis and that private accounts are the only cure.

Progress for America, an independent conservative group that backed Bush in his presidential campaign, has set aside about $9 million to support the president's Social Security plan as well as other White House domestic priorities in the new year, spokesman Brian McCabe said. The group is asking its donors for much more, he said.

Stephen Moore, head of the conservative Club for Growth, has raised $1.5 million and hopes to hit a $15 million target when his fund-raising drive ends.

But their contributions are expected to be dwarfed by those from corporate trade associations, spearheaded by the National Association of Manufacturers. Other likely contributors include the financial services and securities industries and other Fortune 500 companies, GOP officials say. White House officials, led by Karl Rove and Charles P. Blahous III, the president's policy point man on Social Security, are helping to shape the public relations campaign, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity about private discussions with the White House.

"It could easily be a $50 million to $100 million cost to convince people this is legislation that needs to be enacted," Moore said. "It's going to be expensive" because "it's the most important public policy fight in 25 years," he said.

Republicans are expediting their fund-raising plans after learning that AARP, the influential seniors group that supported Bush's Medicare changes but opposes his Social Security designs, will spend $5 million in the first two weeks of this month attacking the president's plan to allow younger workers to invest part of their Social Security contributions in the stock market. AARP plans to run full-page ads in 50 large newspapers to coincide with the return of Congress this week. In one ad, a couple in their 40s says, "If we feel like gambling, we'll play the slots."

Joining AARP will be a large number of groups that historically support Democrats, including the AFL-CIO, NAACP, and National Organization for Women. They are coordinating their work with congressional leaders who are Democrats, all of whom oppose private investment accounts.

Both sides say the fight could become the most expensive lobbying campaign Washington has seen, because the stakes are high for businesses and taxpayers, and the issue is complex for most Americans.

"As an issue, Social Security has not really been out there in front of the public," said David Certner, director of federal affairs at AARP. "It was less of an issue in this past election than it has been in any election in the past two decades."

Consequently, both sides are rushing to define the problem and potential solutions just as most Americans start tuning in to the debate over overhauling the 65-year-old program.

The only point they agree on is that Social Security faces a long-term financial problem because the US population is growing older, living longer, and at some point in the next decade, will be taking more out of the system in benefits than it is paying in taxes that finance it. Democrats are divided over how to fix the problem. Some want to raise taxes; others want to cut benefits or delay the retirement age.

Bush and his GOP allies want to change the system by allowing some workers to put a percentage of their payroll taxes into private investment accounts. The president plans to detail his Social Security plan late this month to coincide with his State of the Union address, which GOP officials say will place the issue at the top of his domestic agenda.

Republicans inside and outside the White House said Bush plans to ask Congress to allow younger Americans to put at least a third of the 6.2 percent payroll tax into private accounts.