http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/conservative-war-on-social-security-history
"Conservatives finally made their play for privatizing Social Security during the second Bush administration.
George W. Bush told conservatives in the midst of the 2000 campaign that Republicans "have to find a way to allow people to invest a percentage of their payroll tax in the capital markets" -- a new incarnation of the individual accounts or privatization concept.
But the GOP was getting sharper with its rhetoric. The libertarian Cato Institute renamed its existing Project on Social Security Privatization to the Project on Social Security Choice in 2002. The overall effect of the Bush-era proposals was the same, turning a guaranteed benefit into something else entirely, but they had figured out what they thought were better ways to talk about it.
"BANISH PRIVATIZATION FROM YOUR LEXICON," read a memo that Republican pollster Frank Luntz gave Bush during the 2004 campaign. But while Bush made Social Security a top priority at the onset of his second term and undertook a national tour to discuss the issue, those who support the traditional program rallied against it."
