US President George W. Bush plans a “big January surprise” if re-elected by moving quickly to allow some private Social Security accounts, which will reduce benefits for retirees and swell the US deficit, Democratic Sen. John Kerry claimed on Sunday.

At a morning Baptist church service in Columbus, Ohio, Kerry seized on remarks by Bush published in The New York Times Magazine on Sunday that if elected to a second term he would “come out strong after my swearing in with fundamental tax reform, tort reform, privatizing of Social Security.” Kerry said Bush’s plan would cut benefits by up to 45 percent – or $500 a month for many Americans – and would bloat an already record deficit by $2 trillion over a decade.

“The president told his biggest and wealthiest donors about his big ‘January surprise,” Kerry told the mostly black congregation. “He’s to come out strong, in his words, to fight for his plans to privatize Social Security.” The White House says Bush has yet to settle on a plan to reform the retirement system, or on a means to finance it.

Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot said Kerry’s assertions were, “Absolutely preposterous. What the president is talking about and has talked about from the moment he ran in 2000 is allowing younger people, younger workers to own a portion of their Social Security and invest it and make decisions.” A leading option under consideration would let workers voluntarily redirect 4 percent of their payroll taxes – up to $1,000 annually – to the personal accounts. The estimated cost of diverting these payroll taxes to personal accounts ranges from $1 trillion to $2 trillion over 10 years, analysts say.

The four-term Massachusetts senator held an afternoon “Early Vote” rally at Pembroke Pines in Florida, a battleground state where early polling started yesterday.

“He said, and I quote him, we’re going to move to privatize Social Security,” Kerry said to boos from the crowd. Bush beat Al Gore in Florida in 2000 by 537 votes after a bitter ballot recount dispute centered in Broward County, where Kerry held his rally.

The Democrat hopes his message on Social Security will resonate particularly here, where many Americans retire for the warm climate and low taxes. Local opinion polls show the battle for Florida is too close to call. “I make this pledge to you,” Kerry said. “I will never privatize Social Security, I will never cut benefits, and I will never raise the retirement age.”

Referring to the 2000 recount, he told supporters here, “You go vote; we’re going to make sure your vote is counted.” Kerry’s warnings about the future viability of America’s government-run retirement system were also the topic of a new Kerry campaign television advertisement.

Kerry picked up a number of newspaper endorsements on Sunday, including from The New York Times, which cited his wide knowledge and clear thinking; his hometown paper, The Boston Globe, and Florida’s Miami Herald.

In recent days, Kerry has focused on pocketbook issues, criticizing Bush for what he said were failing to stem the flight of US jobs overseas, giving tax breaks to millionaires and large companies at the expense of working Americans, and for running up a record budget deficit.

<B>Putin offers his support to Bush</B>

Russian President Vladimir Putin, siding with George W. Bush two weeks before the U.S. presidential election, said yesterday that armed attacks in Iraq were staged by “international terrorism” out to block his re-election.

“The attacks of international terrorism in Iraq are directed not only at international coalition forces but at President Bush personally,” Putin, speaking in the Tajik capital, said. “International terrorism has given itself the goal of causing maximum damage to Bush in the election battle, the goal of blocking the re-election of Bush for a second presidential term,” he told a news conference.

Putin’s comments, ahead of the November 2 election in which Democratic challenger John Kerry and Bush are fighting a close race, seemed a reward to the US President for his personal friendship and valuable support. The strong support he enjoys from Bush since quickly backing the US war on terrorism following the September 11 hijacked plane attacks in the United States has helped him withstand other criticism from the United States and the West over his democratic record at home.

Despite making clear he wanted to see Bush returned to the White House, the pragmatic Putin carefully balanced his comments by adding: “We will, of course, respect any choice by the American people.” Last June, Putin made clear for the first time he would like to see Bush back in the White House, accusing the Democrats of hypocrisy for attacking the US leader on Iraq, saying the Clinton administration had been responsible for the 1999 air attacks on Yugoslavia.

<I>With 16 days to the Nov. 2 presidential election, Kerry kept up his relentless criticism of Bush’s economic policies in his bid to win a neck-and-neck White House race. </I>

<B>Mark Egan</B>