Now it will just be a matter of seeing of getting Republican colleagues to support a plan that has support from the president but is different from his initial plan — and getting Democrats to support anything that has a Republican stamp on it.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., opposes privatization and although Bennett's bill does not include that, he still cannot support it, said Reid's spokesman Jim Manley.

"The bill proposes enormous benefits cuts for many middle-class beneficiaries," Manley said.

Manley said Republicans' attempt to privatize Social Security — while they may not be in Bennett's bill — are still not dead. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, proposed an amendment to the Budget Resolution on the Senate floor Thursday that would have "allowed the Senate to create a reserve fund to protect the Social Security surplus," according to DeMint's office.

But Manley said this was just another vote on Social Security privatization, which did not succeed.

---

E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com