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Privatizing Social Security is put on back burner


Market tumble changes picture
By SARA FRITZ St. Petersburg Times ' Scripps Howard News Service


WASHINGTON ' If Congress had already privatized Social Security, experts say, the financial losses caused by last week's steep drop in the stock market would have been far greater and more widespread. It was that recognition, in part, that has caused some privatization advocates to propose delaying the final report of the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security. The report, which will recommend privatizing Social Security by allowing workers to invest a portion of their contributions in the stock market, was scheduled for release in November. Politically, the plunging stock market could scare people, said Michael Tanner, a scholar at the libertarian CATO Institute who is one of the leading advocates of privatization. If they see after three to six months that the market has recovered, it could be less scary. But so far, according to commission spokesman Randy Clerihue, members of the 16-member advisory panel have not been able to decide whether they will delay the report. Social Security reform is just one of many pending domestic policy measures that are being complicated ' and, in some cases, postponed ' as the result of President Bush's recent decision to make the battle against terrorism his primary goal. There can't be more than one No. 1 priority, said economist Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution. Engaging in a politically divisive issue such as Social Security at a time when national unity is important would simply be poor statecraft on the president's part. The key question the president and congressional leaders are asking as they weigh whether to take up Social Security and other domestic matters: Would the controversy over this issue destroy the fragile unity that now exists between Republicans and Democrats? At the White House, press secretary Ari Fleischer said the president wants to reduce the domestic agenda to just a few issues so that he and the Congress can focus most of their attention on terrorism. The domestic initiatives Bush is pressing for are: an economic stimulus package; a patients' bill of rights, which would give Americans the right to challenge the decisions of their HMO; trade promotion authority to allow the president to promote U.S. exports; expanded government support for faith-based social-service organizations; legislation designed to improve accountability in schools; and a GOP initiative to expand domestic exploration for oil and gas. Fleischer acknowledged that all of these issues are controversial, but he suggested they can be enacted without spoiling the spirit of bipartisan cooperation. Even in this wonderfully new mood of cooperation that has taken place on the Hill, nobody expects votes to be 535-0, Fleischer said. Will there be voices from the Hill that disagree with the administration on issues? Of course. But together, a lot can still be accomplished on the issues like education, on patients' bill of rights, on trade promotion authority, on an energy package. Neither the White House nor congressional leaders will name the initiatives considered important prior to Sept. 11 that will be delayed. But one of them certainly will be the proposal to create a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., says Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee have not abandoned efforts to negotiate a compromise drug benefit, but he holds out little hope it can be achieved this year. He said it might be revived next year, but could be delayed until after the 2004 presidential election.

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