Farm groups representing some of the rural voters who helped President George W. Bush capture the presidency are trying to deal a blow to his Social Security initiative.
``Social Security was one of the better-working programs the federal government ever did,'' said Keith Bolin, a self-described conservative Republican and head of the 14,000-member corn growers group. Bush's plan ``is a way to get more money into the coffers of corporations,'' he said, adopting a line of attack used by congressional Democrats.
Democrats say they want to use Social Security as the wedge to split Republicans from the rural voters who were crucial to Bush's reelection victory in states like Florida, Iowa, New Mexico and Ohio. In Ohio, for example, Democrat John Kerry did better in most of the major metropolitan areas than Democrats usually do. Bush carried the state, though, with larger than expected margins in rural areas.
The farm groups, already concerned about Bush's stance on crop subsidies and imports of agricultural products, are warning their congressional representatives against fundamentally changing Social Security from a retirement insurance system.
``Social Security's a heck of an issue out in the rural part of the country,'' said Evans Witt, a Washington-based pollster and president of Princeton Survey Research Inc. ``Rural folks don't have pension plans'' or major assets outside of land and equipment, so the prospect of losing the guaranteed benefit from Social Security ``scares people to death,'' he said.
Alliance
The coalition marks the first time the Corn Growers Association and the League of Rural Voters have teamed with partisan activists on a legislative issue, according to executives of the two groups. They will work with Americans United to Protect Social Security, which represents the AFL-CIO and other Democratic-leaning organizations, and Democratic lawmakers including Senators Max Baucus of Montana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas.
The president already is facing unified Democratic opposition in Congress and what national polls show is skepticism from the public about his plan to let workers 55 and younger divert a third of their Social Security payroll taxes into accounts invested in stocks and bonds.
Bush is traveling the country to generate support for his proposal, and he has taken care to woo voters in rural areas. Yesterday, for example, he spoke to the Future Farmers of America in Pennsylvania.
Question of Costs
He counters Democratic arguments that the private accounts would be a boon to Wall Street by promising audiences there will be no ``windfall'' of management fees for financial services firms. The administration estimates costs for the accounts would be about 0.3 percent, or 30 cents for each $100 invested.
``Rural voters strongly support the president and his agenda, and we don't see any reason why that would change,'' said Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman. ``In fact, it's just going to keep going stronger.''
The partnership with activist groups is a model for future cooperation on issues affecting rural America, from health care to agriculture policy, said Niel Ritchie, executive director of the League of Rural Voters, a nonpartisan advocacy group based in Minnesota.
``Rural Americans have a tougher row to hoe and they need to get themselves organized to have enough political power at the table,'' he said. ``This is the first of many successful collaborations, I hope.''
Rural Wealth
Farmers are working with Democrats on Social Security out of self-interest, Bolin, 44, said.
``We didn't care about their politics,'' he said in a telephone interview from his farm about 40 miles east of Moline, Illinois. ``We have some real concerns this is just another way to take wealth out of rural America.''
Social Security accounted for about 8 percent of the total personal income to individuals in rural counties in 2003, compared to 4.7 percent in non-rural counties, according to data compiled by the Institute for America's Future, an alliance of advocacy groups generally aligned with Democrats.
The formation of rural opposition highlights a challenge the Republicans face as they've made gains in electoral politics at the state and national level, said Carroll Doherty, associate director of the Pew Center for the People and the Press in Washington. The center released a study on May 10 that found ``pro-government conservatives'' account for a third of the Republican Party.
Favoring Government
``The Republicans are kind of victims of their own success,'' he said. ``They've got more economically distressed people than ever before and a lot of these people favor government'' programs, he said.
Rural concern about Bush's Social Security initiative creates an ``opportunity'' for Democrats, said David Walker, a researcher at Greenberg, Quinlan Rosner Research Inc., a Democratic research organization in Washington.
``Most of his popular margin came out of rural America'' in the 2004 presidential election, Walker said. Bush moved from losing the national popular vote in 2000 by about 500,000 to winning it by 3 million. In rural areas, he won the popular vote by 3.4 million votes in 2000 and by 4.9 million in 2004.
Now rural America is ``really moving away from Bush,'' Walker said. ``Social Security's probably the lead issue.''
Hurdles
Witt, the nonpartisan pollster, said Democrats still face significant hurdles in winning farm votes because of their stance in favor of gun control, abortion rights and positions on other social issues that are at odds with rural communities.
``If they get the right values message and the right spokesman they can do some business,'' he said. ``But they've got to have both.''
Meantime, business groups that support private accounts say they remain bullish that Congress will pass a Social Security overhaul this year, while stopping short of predicting that Bush's accounts will be part of the final legislation.
``When we talk to members individually, there's a broad recognition they have to fix the problem,'' John Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable, said in an interview. ``I'm optimistic.''
