Monday, March 28, 2005

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[IWS] AEI: ATTITUDES ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM (Updated 25 March 2005]

IWS Documented News Service
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Institute for Workplace Studies                 Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations          Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor                  Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016                      Director, IWS News Bureau
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American Enterprise Institute (AEI) for Public Policy Research

AEI PUBLIC OPINION STUDY

ATTITUDES ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM (Updated 25 March 2005]
What do Americans think about the health of the Social Security system and proposals to reform it? This AEI Public Opinion Study looks at how different pollsters have approached the issue. It provides historical data and includes trends on aspects of the debate from major pollsters.

New Social Security Polls: March 21-25
http://www.aei.org/docLib/20050325_SOCIALSECURITY8.pdf
[full-text, 51 pages]


Several pollsters updated their questions on personal accounts this week. In the March 17 to 21 Pew poll, 44 percent favored "a proposal which would allow younger workers to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in private accounts, which might include stocks and bonds," down from 54 percent in December 2004. In the new poll, support barely outweighed opposition (44 to 40 percent). Pew reports that the more people say they know about the President's approach, the more opposed they are. The ABC News/Washington Post question, which has been asked since May 2000, shows more stability in attitudes and even a slight uptick in support since December. In their March poll, 56 percent supported "a plan in which people who chose could invest some of their Social Security contributions in the market," and 41 percent were opposed. In December 2004, those responses were 53-44 percent.

The President's approval ratings on handling Social Security are, in all but one recent poll, lower than his approval ratings on any other issue. The one exception to this pattern was provided by the new Newsweek poll which showed that fewer people approved of his handling of the deficit (29 percent) than approved of the way he was handling Social Security (33 percent).
While the President isn't doing well on the issue at this point, there is no evidence that Democrats in Congress are doing better. The Pew poll reports that approval ratings for the Democrats in Congress are slightly lower than for the Republicans (37 to 39 percent).
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This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.

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Stuart Basefsky                 *
Director, IWS News Bureau               *
Institute for Workplace Studies *
Cornell/ILR School                      *
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor            *
New York, NY 10016                      *
                                        *
Telephone: (607) 255-2703               *
Fax: (607) 255-9641                     *
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu                *
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