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O'Donnell backpedals on Social Security

Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 11, 2006 at midnight

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WHEAT RIDGE - Republican congressional candidate Rick O'Donnell tried to take the steam out of anticipated attack ads by acknowledging Monday that he wrote an essay 11 years ago calling for the abolishment of Social Security.

O'Donnell, 36, said he has since changed his position and wants voters to know, before Democrats slam him, that he now favors fixing Social Security, not abandoning it.

His essay, titled "For Freedom's Sake, Eliminate Social Security," was published in February 1995, when he was editing American Civilization, a publication of Newt Gingrich's Progress and Freedom Foundation.

"As we bury the rest of the welfare state in preparation for the 21st century, it is time to slay the largest government 'entitlement' program of all, Social Security," O'Donnell wrote.

Democrats said Monday that they knew about the essay and had discussed how they might exploit it later in the 7th Congressional District campaign that's expected to be one of the hardest-fought in the country. They said O'Donnell's stated change of heart shows he is trying to portray himself to voters as less right-wing than he really is.

The essay advocates telling Americans that Social Security "won't be there for them," and that government "could then institute a mandatory, private savings scheme" that would let Americans choose where to invest their retirement savings.

"There is an even more important moral question raised by the government's role as chief provider in old age," the essay continues. "It sends the un-American message that it is not your responsibility to take care of yourself."

O'Donnell, who was 24 when he penned the essay, said his thinking is now "better informed." He said helping his parents figure out their own Social Security benefits helped him realize that the federal program was too big a piece of the retirement puzzle to have it just go away.

"I'm not sure when I wrote this that I really thought through the moral commitment we've made to retirees," he said.

O'Donnell said he still fundamentally agrees with his analysis in the essay of Social Security's shortcomings: that people would have more money at retirement if they invested it themselves, that Social Security is on the brink of bankruptcy, and that the federal government has masked the true size of its debt by borrowing from what was then a Social Security surplus.

"I diagnosed the problem accurately, but I gave the wrong prescription," he said Monday. "It isn't to eliminate Social Security. It's to fix it."

O'Donnell is the only Republican running for the 7th District seat in Denver's western, northern and eastern suburbs. Republican Bob Beauprez is giving up the seat to run for governor.

Democrats Ed Perlmutter, Peggy Lamm and Herb Rubenstein will face off in the Aug. 8 primary for the chance to oppose O'Donnell.

Perlmutter's campaign has spoken with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee about how the essay could help Democrats "point out vulnerabilities" in O'Donnell's campaign, Perlmutter campaign manager Danielle Radovich Piper said.

The committee issued a news release Monday calling on O'Donnell to make public his stance on privatizing Social Security. It accused O'Donnell of staying quiet on the issue, even as White House political strategist Karl Rove, who was in Denver on Monday, pushed for Replications to make privatization a top priority next year.

O'Donnell said Monday he supports personal accounts for workers who pay into Social Security and opposes raising taxes to pay for the program.

He added that he thought President Bush "bungled" an opportunity to fix Social Security last year, but he was careful not to criticize the president too harshly.

Bush, after all, is scheduled to headline a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for O'Donnell on July 21.

or 303-892-5059

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