Barone Criticizes Republican Tactics on Social Security

August 20, 2002

In a recent U.S. News and World Report article political analyst Michael Barone warns Republican campaign tactics on Social Security may backfire. Barone notes that some Republicans have begun attacking Democrats for supporting the 1999 Clinton administration's plan, which allowed the federal government to invest Social Security funds in the stock market. For example, South Dakota Rep. John Thune is airing a television advertisement against South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson that claims "Johnson supports a Social Security privatization plan that lets the federal government invest Social Security in the stock market."

According to Barone, the word "privatization is just as precise-or, rather, imprecise-a description of government investment in the stock market as it is of individual investment accounts."

In North Dakota… Republican Rick Clayburgh, running against Rep. Earl Pomeroy, is accusing Pomeroy of supporting "privatization," that is, government investment of Social Security funds in the stock market. Pomeroy, like Johnson, is yelling foul. Yet he did support the proposal, and if "privatization" is a fair description of allowing individual investment accounts in Social Security, why isn't it a fair description of government investment of Social Security funds in the stock market?

But is this strategy "too clever by half?" While Republican strategists might only be focused on winning the election, attacking privatization may make it difficult for Republicans to pass personal retirement account based reform after the election. As Barone points out, "once Republicans have attacked one form of privatization they may feel bound to oppose all forms of privatization." Barone notes:

Clayburgh, for one, says he will vote against any form of "privatization." So Republican attempts to neutralize the Social Security issue in the short run may in the long run make it difficult or impossible for Bush to persuade Congress to pass-presumably after the 2004 election-an individual investment account plan.

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