Democrats Vow to Block Bush on Social Security

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-speech2feb02.story
THE NATION
Democrats Vow to Block Bush on Social Security
On the eve of the State of the Union address, in which the president will detail his plan, Senate opponents say they have the votes to stop it.
By Warren Vieth and Richard Simon
Times Staff Writers

February 2, 2005

WASHINGTON — As President Bush prepared to deliver a detailed sales pitch for Social Security restructuring in tonight's State of the Union address, Senate Democrats suggested Tuesday that they had enough votes to block the kind of overhaul he was seeking.

White House officials said Bush's comments on Social Security would be his most specific yet and would receive equal billing with Iraq and other foreign policy concerns in the nationally televised address that starts at 6 p.m. PST.

Even before the president could put the final touches on a speech that had gone through 17 drafts by Tuesday afternoon, the leader of the Senate's Democrats declared his colleagues "united" in opposing Bush's proposal to let younger workers divert a portion of their payroll taxes into private investment accounts they would control.

"President Bush should forget about privatizing Social Security," Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada told reporters after a Democratic caucus meeting Tuesday morning. "It will not happen. The sooner he comes to that realization, the better off we are."

Although one Senate Democrat said he had not yet made up his mind, Reid expressed confidence that none would back the president's plan.
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