Originally published June 16 2005
Social Security causes GOP rift
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Bush's Social Security announcement to cut benefits to high- and middle-income retirees was met with heavy opposition among constituents and representatives in Congress.
President George W. Bush's effort to get Congress moving on Social Security by proposing cuts in benefits for high- and middle-income retirees has exposed cracks in the House Republican leadership.
Majority Leader Tom DeLay and many conservatives unhappy with the Senate's cautious approach want a House bill on Social Security ready as soon as possible, while Speaker Dennis Hastert prefers to wait and let the Senate act first, according to Republican aides.
Republicans hold majorities in both the House and Senate.
The rift was exposed shortly after Bush's news conference Thursday night, when he tried to kick-start legislative deliberations.
Bush announced low-wage workers would continue to see their retirement benefits linked to wage growth, keeping them apace with a gradually rising standard of living as well as price increases.
Benefits for the remaining 70 percent of future retirees would keep pace with price inflation but not with living standard improvements over their working lives.
Fifty-eight percent of 1,006 adults surveyed April 29-May 1 said they disapprove of his work on Social Security, up from 57 percent in early April and 48 percent in early February, the poll showed.
Bush has proposed letting younger workers shift a third of the funds they pay into Social Security into private investment accounts, an idea congressional Democrats oppose.
"With gas prices on the rise, the focus of the public is back on the economy and jobs," pollster David Winston told GOP leaders.
Democratic leaders in both houses said they won't participate in writing a bill until Bush jettisons the idea of letting younger workers divert some of their Social Security taxes into individual retirement accounts.
That has drawn the ire of some conservative activists.
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