Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Finance Committee, said Monday that if public opinion did not soon begin to swing in favor of President Bush's Social Security plan, it would be an indication that the plan was in trouble.
After a meeting with the other Republicans on his committee, Mr. Grassley repeated to reporters what he has been saying for weeks - that the success or failure of the plan depended on whether the president could persuade voters at the grass roots that the Social Security system was in jeopardy and that his approach was the right way to fix the problem. ... Mr. Grassley, the most important senator on Social Security policy, said that after holding 18 town meetings at home in Iowa last week, he believed that there was still "a lack of understanding" of the issue among his constituents and that if the president did not do a better job of teaching them, "nothing is going to happen."
Right now, he said, "it's too doggone early" to tell if Mr. Bush is making progress. Asked when that might be clearer, Mr. Grassley responded, "Maybe in another two or three weeks I would like to see some movement" in the opinion polls "or you might have some question about the president succeeding." Cont.
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