Democrats vow no negotiation on plan to alter retirement program

WASHINGTON -- Buoyed by polls indicating support slipping for President Bush's Social Security overhaul plan, congressional Democrats said yesterday that they would not negotiate on any plan to change the government retirement program unless the president gave up on the idea of partly privatizing the system.

But the White House insisted that allowing younger workers to invest part of their Social Security payments in stocks and bonds -- a fundamental part of Bush's proposal -- was key to protecting the long-term survival of Social Security.

''The president is committed to these private accounts," Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said yesterday on ABC's ''This Week." ''I'm committed to them." Snow said the accounts were ''absolutely essential" to revamping the 70-year program. But Democrats, sparring with Republicans on the Sunday talk shows, said they would not even consider an overhaul that included privatization.

''Democrats have said what they'd do. We're not going to negotiate with someone that's trying to destroy [Social Security]. Privatization destroys it," Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, said on ''This Week." ''Privatization cannot be on the table."

In a separate interview, the Senate minority whip, Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said his party was happy to work with the GOP on Social Security, but not if the president refused to budge on the privatization matter.

''The privatization proposal of the president is going to destroy Social Security as we know it. And let me tell you why. It doesn't strengthen Social Security. It weakens it. It doesn't address the solvency problem," Durbin said on NBC's ''Meet the Press."

Bush and other administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, embarked last week on a 60-city, 60-day tour across America to try to sell the president's plan to the public.

The president's plan would allow younger workers to divert to private accounts as much as 4 percent of their income that is subject to the Social Security tax. Advocates say that would earn more retirement income for workers and ease the burden on the government-paid Social Security later on. Those who invested some of their income in the stock and bond markets would get lower guaranteed Social Security benefits.

Lawmakers in both major parties acknowledge that the system is getting increasingly strained, as people live longer and draw on Social Security. But Democrats say the system is not yet in ''crisis," as the president has warned, and that the system will be solvent until at least 2045.

Further, the president has not explained how he will pay for the transition costs incurred when younger workers start diverting money into private accounts, Durbin said. The Illinois lawmaker estimated that the government would have to borrow $2 million to $5 trillion to pay benefits because younger workers would be contributing less cash to the Social Security fund.

Republicans counter that the Democrats have not offered their own proposal to revamp Social Security, instead using ''scare tactics" to make Americans wary of tinkering with the entitlement program.