His own ways, his own means
Bill Thomas is charting an independent course on Social Security
Democrats have been pummeling the president and Republican members of Congress for pushing the idea of revamping Social Security with private investment accounts. That is not a solution, Democrats say, and their argument has put them in an unusual place: ahead. Republicans at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue have been on the defensive on the issue. But now that Bill Thomas, the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, has joined the fray, he is warning Democrats that he has beat them before and could do it again. "Why am I optimistic? . . . It's because we've had very small [GOP] majorities, and we have been able to move important legislation to the president's desk," says the 63-year-old Republican from California's Central Valley.
It is the unalloyed confidence of a man who has become known for never lacking any. "I think Bill is more sure that he has the answers than his predecessors were," says Rep. Sander Levin, a Michigan Democrat who has been on the Ways and Means Committee with Thomas for some 18 years.
Grand schemer. Thomas, now in his 14th term, may be the only person in Washington willing to declare himself optimistic about the miasmal debate on Social Security. But that's important, Capitol veterans say, because the Ways and Means chair is a singular personality with huge influence over the outcome. If President Bush is to sign any Social Security legislation, large or small, this year or next, it will surely bear the mark of Bill Thomas.
But for Thomas, that may not be enough. What he's really shooting for is reform much grander than the president's plan. As he began a series of hearings on the matter last week, Thomas sternly lectured the country about the need to broaden the discussion beyond the solvency of Social Security to address the changing needs of an aging population and the question of how government will pay for those changes. "If we put blinders on at this stage in trying to fix Social Security and not keep at least in our peripheral vision Medicare and Medicaid, we may be able to fix Social Security, but it means we may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire," he says. "There is no long-term-care structure, and we have to begin talking about that."
Even Democrats who oppose Thomas are unwilling to completely count him out. "Bill is very smart, and I wouldn't say that he couldn't pull this off, but I don't think anybody can pull it off," says Washington State Democrat Jim McDermott. Thomas counters with history. He has been the chief author and manager of some of the most contentious legislation to pass the Congress in recent years. In 2001, the House approved a trade promotion bill giving President Bush nonreviewable negotiating authority. It passed by one vote, 215 to 214. Two years later, Thomas was one of the chief architects of a contentious Medicare overhaul that added a prescription drug benefit for seniors. What was supposed to be a 15-minute vote began at 3 a.m. and lasted 2 hours and 51 minutes, infuriating Democrats. For more than an hour, the plan appeared dead, with a 218-to-216 vote against adoption, but the voting stayed open; in the end, Thomas and the GOP prevailed, 220 to 215, after a little arm-twisting during what remains the longest vote in House history.
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