By Mike Allen and Amy Goldstein

Washington Post Staff Writers

Thursday, February 28, 2002; Page A06

Drawing attention to an issue on which Democrats believe Republicans are vulnerable, President Bush plans to promote a commitment to retirement security today, linking his recent pension reform proposal with his longstanding desire to create private retirement accounts in the Social Security system.

A White House official said Bush, who will speak at an annual Labor Department national summit on retirement savings, wants America to be an ownership society -- a society where a life of wages becomes a retirement of independence.

One part of that strategy was laid out by a Social Security commission appointed by the White House. Last December the commission proposed three alternatives that would allow workers to invest some of their Social Security taxes in the stock market. A White House aide said Bush plans to promote the idea throughout the year but respect the wishes of GOP lawmakers not to push for legislation before the election.

Bush's retirement security plan has two other major facets. One is the provision in last year's tax cut legislation that raises contribution limits on individual retirement accounts and 401(k) plans, and adds catch-up contributions after age 50 for time taken away from work.

The other is Bush's plan to change pension law to abolish traps such as the one that prevented Enron employees from selling company stock while it was plunging, even as top executives cashed out. Bush's pension parity would forbid top executives from selling company stock during periods when lower-ranking workers may not trade. Workers, many now locked into holding company stock for decades, would be allowed to sell it after three years.

Bush's planned remarks are part of a GOP effort to command the stage on Social Security, an issue with enormous voter appeal, and to shield Republicans from political fallout from the collapse of Enron Corp. Democratic politicians and pollsters believe that both issues will benefit their party in the elections this fall.

Yesterday, House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) sought to undercut Democrats' potential advantage with voters concerned about retirement during a speech at the Cato Institute. The libertarian think tank is one of the most vigorous proponents of letting workers put Social Security payroll taxes into retirement investment accounts.

Armey lashed out at Democratic critics, saying, We may be at a point in Social Security's history when the issue actually backfires on defenders of the status quo. He also tried to blunt concerns among the elderly that they might lose money if the program was changed by repeating an idea he has recommended to House Republicans of mailing Social Security recipients a certificate guaranteeing their benefits would not be cut.

Democrats reiterated their warning that a move to private accounts would drain revenue from the Social Security system when the program's finances already are threatened by the coming retirement of the large baby boom generation. .