Bush acknowledges Social Security plan is stalled

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-10-04T182438Z_01_N04664181_RTRIDST_0_BUSH.XML

WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, who had demanded that the U.S. Congress overhaul Social Security this year, acknowledged on Tuesday that the centerpiece of his second-term legislative agenda was going nowhere.

"There seems to be a diminished appetite in the short term," Bush said of his Social Security legislation, stating publicly for the first time what top aides have been saying privately for weeks.

He called the retirement program "a long-term promise that's going to need to be addressed," and said it was up to members of Congress to determine when the "appetite to address it" improves.

The comments underscored just how much declining public support for the president's handling of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war have upended his agenda for his final three years in office.

Bush, in a Rose Garden press conference, offered a scaled-back list of objectives for the remainder of the year: supporting U.S. troops in Iraq, renewing the Patriot Act and rebuilding from Katrina.

<snip>

Bush said he has "plenty" of political capital left and that he planned to "spend it in the short term on getting a budget out that is fiscally responsible."

...more...

Stalled?:spray:

Should Be Stopped Dead In Its Tracks.

:headbang:
rocknation

....He called the retirement program "a long-term promise that's going to need to be addressed," and said it was up to members of Congress to determine when the "appetite to address it" improves.

....Bush said he has "plenty" of political capital left and that he planned to "spend it in the short term on getting a budget out that is fiscally responsible."

The mechanic convinced me to junk it. He was tired of wasting his time.

WASHINGTON — President Bush acknowledged Tuesday for the first time that his plan to restructure Social Security, once his top second-term domestic priority, was moribund because he had been unable to build public support for it.

"There seems to be a diminished appetite in the short term" for dealing with a Social Security overhaul, Bush said with a dash of resignation.

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bush5oct05,0,4977663.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines

This thing is still on his radar, regardless of what they are saying.

Whether Congress would act on Social Security next year remains an open question.
- It would finish them off if they tried next year, in an election year and all.

I'm sorry....let me take another look at the deficit...and the Halliburton no-bid contracts compared to what they're charging the Feds...and the drive to make his tax cuts permanent while trying to pay for a war and two back-to-back natural disasters....OK.

"Fiscally responsible"?!?!?!?!?!?

* wouldn't know "fiscally responsible" if it came up and bit him in the ASS!