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Group Opens $2 Million Drive for Bush Social Security Plan
By Glen Justice, New York Times
March 8, 2005
The Progress for America Voter Fund, a Republican political advocacy group, began a $2 million campaign of television commercials on Monday, rolling out a minute long advertisement supporting President Bush's Social Security plan.
The commercial, which will run on national cable channels for three weeks, opens with a scene of a fog-shrouded iceberg as an announcer intones, "Some people say Social Security is not in trouble, just like some thought the Titanic was unsinkable."
It goes on to cite Social Security statistics, including a warning that "if nothing is done, it will go bankrupt," before advocating personal investment accounts and other elements of Mr. Bush's plan.
The commercial is part of a lobbying duel that continues to build over Social Security, with the White House pushing on all fronts for Mr. Bush's plan to overhaul the system and Democrats in Congress maintaining their opposition.
Progress for America, which spent millions of dollars supporting Mr. Bush in last year's election, plans to support his social security plan with television, mail and phone campaigns, while some other organizations are using less traditional means to oppose the president.
Organized labor, for example, has been pressing financial services companies to quit the business-heavy lobbying coalitions that back Mr. Bush's plan.
"We are trying to get Wall Street to sit on the sidelines," said William Patterson, director of the Office of Investment at the
A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Labor's threat is underpinned by more than $400 billion in pension funds that unions have under investment nationwide, business that financial services companies may not want to lose.
One such company, Waddell & Reed Financial Services, announced it was leaving the coalition called the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security, which plans to spend roughly $500,000 lobbying Congress for Mr. Bush's Social Security plan. It is the second financial services firm to do so in recent weeks.
The move came in advance of plans by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. to stage a public campaign beginning Tuesday that would include demonstrations at company offices, letters and a Web page, Mr. Patterson said.
Before the campaign got fully under way, Waddell & Reed sent a letter to Mr. Patterson on Friday. "The firm has a history of listening to its clients and being sympathetic and supportive of their issues," it said. "Please accept our withdrawal as such proof."
Officials at the company did not return calls seeking comment.
Derrick Max, executive director of the alliance, said labor's campaign was not having a financial impact on the coalition or slowing its work. "They are fighting on grounds that have nothing to do with policy," he said, adding, "We are out there working on retirement security, and these guys don't want to have a debate."
Mr. Patterson said the A.F.L.-C.I.O. would continue, taking aim at companies like Charles Schwab.
Other groups have also tried novel approaches. MoveOn.org's political action committee, for example, began a contest last week inviting supporters to send in animations, games or other interactive devices that "convey the consequences for future retirees" under Mr. Bush's plan, which the organization opposes. There have already been more than 1,500 submissions, and the winner will be used in the group's campaign.
Another group opposing the Bush plan, TrueMajority, founded by Ben Cohen, a co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, is spending $54,000 on radio commercials beginning Tuesday.
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