Bush and Social Security

Looks like Bush is backing off a bit from his original proposal. The Dems have been pretty stout in their refusal to even consider carving into the payroll tax for private accounts.

President Bush said on Thursday he would focus for now on the financial problems facing Social Security, signaling a shift in tactics amid a slide in support for his private account plan.

Ok, that's Reuters talking. Really Bush is not backing off that much.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan made clear Bush was not backing away from private Social Security accounts despite a suggestion by a top Senate Republican they be taken off the table to get a bill this year.

That's further down in the article. Cute how journalists do that. Republican Senators are, however, saying that this battle is distracting from the debate about what to do about the program. That's kind of disingenuous, though, as it is part of the debate, not a distraction from it.
Although, when you think about it, this has all forced Dems and Reps to try to calm the issue down by saying that they WILL talk about making changes to the program so that it will retain solvency farther into the future, but not as long as private accounts. If I were the President here, I would be willing to drop the private account issue as long as it forced the Senate to actually do something about the program, like tying benefits to prices or something. That in itself would be a victory.
Or, if it doesn't get the Senate to do anything, it'll make them look really bad and the President really good.

On another note, check out this poll that the Times conducted.

In a New York Times/CBS News poll published on Thursday, 51 percent of respondents said diverting Social Security taxes into private accounts was a bad idea. The number rose to 69 percent when respondents were told the accounts would result in a cut in guaranteed government benefits.

Duh. This reflects less on the Times and CBS and their stupid questions designed to get poll numbers that make the president look bad than it does the public answering the questions.
So, really, if I contribute less to the system because I'm contributing more to my own personal account, I can expect less from the government upon retirement? Well, duh, I didn't think the idea was bad before, duh, but now that you put it that way, duh, I definitely think it's a bad idea.
Duuuuhhhh.