QUOTE
President Remains Eager to Cut Entitlement Spending
By Michael Abramowitz
The Washington Post
Friday 11 August 2006
The Bush administration has begun sounding out lawmakers and other key figures about mounting a new bipartisan effort to rein in the costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security after the midterm elections, according to officials in the administration and on Capitol Hill.
No specific plan has been advanced, and administration officials are proceeding gingerly given the political debacle that beset the White House last year when President Bush promoted a plan to create private accounts in the Social Security program. But they have been sending strong signals in recent weeks that they want to try something again after the elections in November.
...
"We need to cut entitlement spending," the president said in one typical comment last month, as he reviewed the midyear budget numbers. "The easy fix is to say 'Let somebody else deal with it.' This administration is going to continue trying to work with Congress to deal with these issues."
Fulfilling this pledge is a tall order and, even in the view of some of Bush's strongest supporters, beyond the capacity of a politically weakened administration facing the prospect of serious losses in the fall elections. Democrats appear eager to use the issue as a political cudgel for the time being; Paulson's comments triggered a new round of accusations that Bush plans to "privatize" Social Security.
Grover Norquist, a leading GOP strategist, said he can envision no circumstance in which Bush could secure any overhaul of the Social Security program, including creating personal accounts. "The Democrats cannot be bribed, cajoled or threatened into voting for Social Security reform - it can't happen," he said.
LINK
By Michael Abramowitz
The Washington Post
Friday 11 August 2006
The Bush administration has begun sounding out lawmakers and other key figures about mounting a new bipartisan effort to rein in the costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security after the midterm elections, according to officials in the administration and on Capitol Hill.
No specific plan has been advanced, and administration officials are proceeding gingerly given the political debacle that beset the White House last year when President Bush promoted a plan to create private accounts in the Social Security program. But they have been sending strong signals in recent weeks that they want to try something again after the elections in November.
...
"We need to cut entitlement spending," the president said in one typical comment last month, as he reviewed the midyear budget numbers. "The easy fix is to say 'Let somebody else deal with it.' This administration is going to continue trying to work with Congress to deal with these issues."
Fulfilling this pledge is a tall order and, even in the view of some of Bush's strongest supporters, beyond the capacity of a politically weakened administration facing the prospect of serious losses in the fall elections. Democrats appear eager to use the issue as a political cudgel for the time being; Paulson's comments triggered a new round of accusations that Bush plans to "privatize" Social Security.
Grover Norquist, a leading GOP strategist, said he can envision no circumstance in which Bush could secure any overhaul of the Social Security program, including creating personal accounts. "The Democrats cannot be bribed, cajoled or threatened into voting for Social Security reform - it can't happen," he said.
LINK
Emphasis mine. Norquist said that!?!
