The gauntlet
has been thrown down--even if the carpet hasn't. On the rugless
floors of an anonymous high-rise in downtown Washington, staffers
for a brand-new coalition, Americans United to Protect Social
Security, worked feverishly while their offices were still being
built. "We need a computer and a phone line," says Cara Morris,
deputy communications director, "and that's it."
Since President Bush made it clear that Social
Security overhaul would be the centerpiece of his second-term
agenda, Democrats and other opponents have been girding for a
political donnybrook. Along with an array of interest groups like
AARP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, and the AFL-CIO, the Democrats have taken the offensive in
the Social Security battle, lambasting the proposal to create
private accounts for workers as a dangerous exercise of fiscal
irresponsibility. So far, they've got Republicans on the run.
"Who does this man work for?"
The Democrats, obviously, have a lot at stake. Born of FDR's
New Deal, the Social Security Act has been a bedrock legacy of the
party for 70 years. "It's a program we created, [which] Republicans
fought against and have spent decades trying to undermine," says
Jano Cabrera, Democratic National Committee spokesman. "We are
drawing a firm line in the sand." Two Democratic operatives, Paul
Tewes and Steve Hildebrand, are leading the nonprofit Americans
United to Protect Social Security, which is working closely with
congressional Democrats and 200 member organizations, including
labor and liberal interest groups like MoveOn.org.
Just a week old, the umbrella group already has
more than $1 million in the bank--much of it from the American
Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees--and has hopes
of drumming up $30 million to $40 million. The money will go to
political advertising; grass-roots activism is already paying some
nice dividends. When Republican congressional leaders went home in
February to tout Social Security changes, members of AARP, the
senior citizens lobby, joined with organized labor to pack town hall
forums. In Pennsylvania, Sen. Rick Santorum encountered a reception
so hostile it made national headlines. Supporters of coalition
groups will be greeting President Bush and other officials with
rallies and press conferences at nearly every juncture of the
Republicans' dizzying "60 events in 60 days" tour.
Interest groups are also planning to target
Republicans who may be wavering--folks like Pennsylvania Rep. Jim
Gerlach, who narrowly won election in 2002 and has yet to endorse
Bush's plan. Committed Bush-backers are also being hit. The liberal
advocacy group Campaign for America's Future has blanketed
newspapers and airwaves in Shreveport, La., with ads that describe
local Rep. Jim McCrery, head of the House Social Security
subcommittee, as being in the pocket of Wall Street firms who stand
to profit from private accounts. "Who does this man work for?" asked
one newspaper spot. "Not you." McCrery said that campaign
contributions from Wall Street play no role in his support for
private accounts. If Democrats express openness to Bush's plan, they
may be targeted, too. "We don't think there's any room in the
coalition for a compromise," says Tom Matzzie, Washington director
for MoveOn.org.
But that aggressive approach has made some of
the coalition's natural allies nervous. The Association of Retired
Americans, one of many groups with bipartisan membership, is
purposefully limiting its involvement in Americans United to Protect
Social Security. The same is true of another advocacy association,
the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
Others are trying to walk a fine line. AARP spent an estimated $10
million on print advertising that criticizes Bush's plan for Social
Security, but it avoided attacks on members of Congress who support
it. Still, that was enough for conservative lobbying group USA Next
to wage a campaign against what it called the "liberal" AARP.
Despite the strategic differences, opposition
groups are feeling emboldened, if not downright giddy, by the
fissures appearing among Republicans on Capitol Hill. "It's our
mission to exploit that," says Brad Woodhouse, communications
director for Americans United to Protect Social Security.
Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, seem solid in their opposition
to the president's concept of Social Security reform. It's a
reversal of fortune in Washington--leaving some on both sides of the
aisle wondering whether Bush's call for Social Security overhaul
wasn't just what beleaguered Democrats needed.
-Bret Schulte
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