Bush said his commission, headed by Senator Patrick Moynihan of New York, a Democrat who died in 2003, provided ''a good blueprint." The commission had been asked to come up with a plan for establishing personal investment accounts.
For future retirees, base benefits would be cut by tying them to inflation instead of wage growth, with stock market gains assumed to make up any shortfall. The concept gained support in the stock market boom of the late 1990s.
Bush has not said how the $2 trillion transition costs would be funded, nor did his commission. Major obstacles are record deficits, Bush's desire to make his five rounds of tax cuts permanent, and the rising military costs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Republicans say doing nothing is worse. ''There are a lot of things you could do, but none of them are without some sacrifice," said Senator Lindsey O. Graham, Republican of South Carolina.
Graham's plan would let workers divert 4 percent of payroll taxes into their accounts and would spread transition costs over 10 to 15 years. He said the yearly price tag of $80 billion to $100 billion could be funded by closing tax loopholes, cutting pork-barrel spending, borrowing money, or temporarily raising the payroll tax cap on earnings.
''No idea is off the table," Graham said. He thinks Republicans have about a six-month political window before Bush's election momentum starts to fade and attention turns to midterm elections.
Any plan needs support of Democrats. But some of Bush's biggest Democratic allies for overhauling Social Security won't be around in January. Representative Charlie W. Stenholm of Texas was defeated last week after the Legislature redrew districts. Senator John B. Breaux of Louisiana is retiring.
Other Democrats have pledged to fight Bush's attempts to privatize the New Deal program.
