A senior White House official said Sunday that career employees at the Social Security Administration would not be asked to promote President Bush's plan to create private investment accounts.
"The Social Security Administration is an independent organization that has a duty to fulfill the obligations of making sure that checks go out and ... the solvency of the actual system itself," Dan Bartlett, a top aide to Bush, told NBC's "Meet the Press."
Responding to a report in The New York Times that the agency would publicize Social Security's financial problems and promote private accounts, Bartlett said: "There's no expectation that career employees would be asked to advocate on behalf of any specific prescription for Social Security."
The Social Security Administration's marketing plan followed revelations that the Education Department had paid conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to promote Bush's "No Child Left Behind" education initiative.
Bartlett said a review was underway within the administration to determine whether any other journalists were paid to promote administration policy.
"We do believe we shouldn't be doing these things in the future because, for appearance's sake, it does leave a cloud ... over whether someone's being a journalist or an advocate," he said.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said the Bush administration and its Republican allies will "stop at nothing to push their partisan political agenda."
No detailed plan
Bush has made Social Security his top legislative priority, but has yet to propose a detailed plan or explain how he would pay for the transition to private accounts.
One option, backed by some fellow Republicans, would raise the income level subject to the Social Security tax.
Bartlett played down that proposal, saying: "If you were to remove the cap altogether, my understand of the math shows that that only fixes the problem for four years. So that is not a long-term solution in and of itself."
According to the Times, many employees at the Social Security Administration complained to agency officials of being dragged into a political battle over the retirement system's future.
They questioned the accuracy of recent statements by the agency and said that money from the Social Security trust fund should not be used for such advocacy, the Times said.
Pelosi called for a "full investigation" and said "any illegal political activities being conducted by the Social Security Administration should immediately cease."
