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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - The more President Bush stumps for restructuring Social Security, the less support his own plan seems to win with voters. His poll ratings are dropping, too, but Bush says he is not deterred.
"I'm going to be stubborn. And we're going to keep working this," Bush said Wednesday at a community college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Barnstorming on behalf of a presidential proposal is a time-honored technique to build grass-roots support. Bush used the strategy successfully in his first term for his tax cuts and for a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
This time, it has been more of a struggle.
Not quite five months after a re-election victory that he said earned him political capital to spend, some polls show Bush's approval ratings in the mid 40 percent range, and his Social Security plan for individual investment accounts seems to be winning few friends, either in Congress or among the public.
Polls indicate Bush - about halfway through a 60-day cross-country push for his plan - is helping to raise public awareness of what Social Security's financial plight will be once he and other baby boomers start retiring.
But the same polls show support for individual investment accounts is lower now than when he proposed them in his State of the Union address two months ago.
Timed to coincide with Bush's visit, the AARP held a news conference to release the results of a national survey showing significant opposition among its membership to the proposed individual investment accounts.
"AARP members not only dislike private accounts ... they really dislike them," said Jeff Love, research director for the nation's most powerful lobby for elderly citizens.
Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said White House aides have reached out to try to find common ground with the group that claims 35-million members - even as he pointed to "scare tactics" by other opponents
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over Social Security issues, has said the odds are below 50-50 that Bush's plan will pass Congress.
Bush, in an interview aired on Iowa radio stations, said, "I think there is a political price for not getting involved in the process." He also said doing nothing might one day force Congress to raise the payroll tax for Social Security from its current 12.4 percent up to around 18 percent.
As for his declining approval ratings, some of the president's supporters suggest that other factors, such as the Terri Schiavo case, are at play.
"The president's poll numbers are usually a direct reflection of the national news. And the news has been dominated by a heart-wrenching matter in Florida that has caused many families to discuss politics at the dinner table in a whole new way," said GOP consultant Scott Reed.
Reed said, "I wouldn't throw in the towel on Social Security reform at this stage. The president is taking the message to the streets, has a very aggressive schedule. I think you have to wait and see what happens when Congress returns from its recess." Congress is back next week.
Although Bush has not presented a detailed plan, he has called for allowing workers under age 55 to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into stock and bond investment accounts - in exchange for a reduction in future guaranteed benefits.