Kemp Credited With Derailing Social Security Freeze

WASHINGTON â€”  To the dismay of angry Senate Republicans, the undoing of their politically explosive proposal to freeze Social Security benefits was engineered not by Democrats but by a member of their own party: Rep. Jack Kemp of New York.

Kemp, like many House Republicans, adamantly opposed the freeze, arguing that it would provide Democrats with a handy weapon in next year’s congressional elections.

Kemp, who is widely assumed to have presidential ambitions, began private talks over the budget with White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan shortly after House and Senate negotiators reached an impasse in their effort to compromise their separate versions of a fiscal 1986 budget.

Reagan’s Support

Those talks apparently led President Reagan to accept the House-passed proposal, engineered by the Democrats who control the House, to let Social Security benefits grow next year with inflation.

Although Kemp declined to comment, an aide said: “I guess this could be construed as the beginning of things getting back together.�

But Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) was not so pleased with the efforts of his Republican colleague. Domenici, a source close to him said, “is pretty mad and feels somewhat undercut and really chagrined . . . particularly at one Republican member of the House.�

Kemp often has clashed publicly with his fellow Republicans in the Senate because he insists that their deficit-reduction efforts would impede economic growth. And, in a closed-door meeting at the White House Wednesday, Kemp aggravated the friction.

Yardage Gain

“Jack Kemp was telling everyone he liked (the House-passed budget) and that he thought the Administration ought to support it,� California Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento) said.

In helping to unravel the Senate proposal, the former professional football player may have gained political yardage for his expected 1988 presidential campaign.

And he may have thrown Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), a likely contender for the Republican presidential nomination, for a loss. Dole, who has staked considerable prestige on his effort to steer a strong deficit-reduction package through Congress, was a key advocate of the Senate-passed Social Security freeze.