Is Grassley iffy?
Here’s a report by Matt Kelley from the RadioIowa website …
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is negotiating with members of both parties to find a way to keep Social Security afloat without cutting benefits or raising the retirement age. After a one-on-one meeting last week with President Bush on the subject, Grassley says he’s working with the administration and other members of Congress to find a solution that’ll succeed. Grassley, a republican, says he can’t yet reveal details of his proposal. Grassley says “If I do, it’s kinda’ like showing your hand too early. It’s a negotiating process and I think we need to just reserve judgment on almost every aspect of it. Tax increase or no tax increase. Private accounts or no private accounts.” President Bush hosts a forum at the White House today on Social Security. It will include people from several generations talking about troubles in the system. Grassley says there’s no easy fix. Grassley says “There’s just dozens of moving parts and it’s not so much what you’re for or against but how does doing something over here effect something someplace else in the equation.” Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, says he’s treading carefully in the Social Security reform negotiations. Grassley calls it the “most politically-sensitive issue we can deal with ever” and he’s trying to remain flexible. President Bush says Social Security will go broke by the time Baby Boomers retire, but critics says it should stay afloat well into the middle of this century and they accuse Bush of exaggerating the problems.
And here’s a report from the field <$NoAd$> from TPM reader Susan N. …
In a meeting yesterday in Charles City, many of the questions were about Social Security. Senator Grassley did not take a position, citing a need to remain open-minded because of his position on the Finance Committee. He did recite the demographics in support of the argument that Something Must Be Done, but declined to say what he thought the Something should be. I heard: keeping the powder dry until the constituents weigh in. He’s doing a bunch of meetings this week in Iowa, he says. This guy is as conservative as they come, but a very savvy politician. Lots of his constituents are older, and he has been strong on cleaning up nursing homes and other issues that affect them. In response to questions about immigration and something Vicente Fox supposedly said, Grassley said that the good news is that Vicente Fox doesn’t have a vote in Congress. The questioner pointed out Bush’s support of amnesty for certain illegal immigrants, and Grassley muttered that Bush doesn’t have a vote in Congress either, to much laughter. It’s not just Democrats we need to work on. Lots of us blue people live in red states with conservative representatives who have doubts about the wisdom of private accounts.
Indeed.
