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GOP Leaders Asked to Stall Social Security Bill
By
David Espo and Mary Dalrymple,
Associated Press
September 16, 2005
House Speaker Dennis Hastert suggested the head of the House Republican
campaign committee spoke for himself when he urged fellow GOP leaders to
drop plans for Social Security legislation this year, citing potential
repercussions in the 2006 elections.
"I think Tom Reynolds may have been talking about what his
feelings are," Hastert told reporters late Thursday. "Social
Security is something very important. It's something we've talked about
doing, and when we decide to move forward we'll let the press know."
In the latest blow to the White House on the issue, Rep. Tom Reynolds,
R-N.Y., conveyed his views Wednesday in a meeting with Hastert as well as
a larger gathering of Republican lawmakers on the
House Ways
and Means Committee, officials said Thursday.
As chairman of the House Congressional Campaign Committee, Reynolds is
point man for the GOP effort to retain its majority in the 2006 midterm
elections. Democrats must gain 15 seats next year to win control of the
House.
The officials who described the conversations spoke only condition of
anonymity, saying the sessions were private.
NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said, "We don't comment on closed-door
meetings."
Ron Bonjean, a spokesman for Hastert, declined comment. Hastert and
other GOP leaders vowed jointly in late June to place a Social Security
bill on the floor this fall.
At the same time, it was yet another and possibly fatal setback in a
long line of them for what once was the centerpiece of President Bush's
second-term agenda. In last winter's State of the Union speech, Bush asked
Congress to pass a plan to create personal accounts under Social Security
while shoring up its financing.
Reynolds met Wednesday with Hastert for a review of the political
landscape, making clear his views on Social Security, according to one
official. Two other Republicans said he had outlined his views on Social
Security at a meeting with Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee.
According to one official who attended the meeting with committee
Republicans, Reynolds told the group that the congressional agenda now has
been expanded to include legislation relating to Hurricane Katrina and
that public attention also has turned to high gasoline prices.
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