Yahoo! News - Bush Says Wants Ideas on Retirement Overhaul
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush promised to listen to "any good idea" for fixing Social Security on Saturday as he sought to coax reluctant lawmakers into joining his effort to overhaul the retirement program.

But Democrats signaled little interest in working with Bush unless he scraps the centerpiece of his plan -- allowing workers to shift up to 4 percentage points of their payroll taxes into private stock and bond accounts.

Bush has conceded that private accounts alone will not solve Social Security's problems and has raised the sensitive issue of reining in Social Security's costs through such means as reducing future benefit growth or limiting benefits for wealthy retirees.

Democrats have hammered Bush for suggesting benefit limitations and many congressional Republicans are squeamish about embracing such ideas, fearing the issue could hurt them in the 2006 midterm elections.

Rather than offer proposals of his own to curtail Social Security's costs, Bush has listed ideas that have been raised in the past that he suggested could serve as a starting point for a discussion on the venerated 1935 program.

"In recent years, many people have offered suggestions, such as limiting benefits for wealthy retirees; indexing benefits to prices, instead of wages; increasing the retirement age; or changing the benefit formulas and creating disincentives for early collection of Social Security benefits," Bush said. "All these ideas are on the table."

Whatsamatta George? Did the "mandate" vanish with the new poll numbers? NOW you're willing to compromise? Uh-huh. I don't quite believe that, either. Note to Dems- watch very carefully- he's lying here, too. I can't prove it, but I just know it.