Despite the fact that private accounts are a non-starter in the Senate, the Republican-led House of Representatives is poised to pass a Social Security bill with the accounts, reports David E. Rosenbaum of The New York Times.

Republican leaders said Wednesday for the first time that they would put Social Security legislation to a vote in the House this year even if the measure stood no chance in the Senate.

Until now, the House leaders had been wary of forcing rank-and-file Republicans to cast a futile and politically perilous vote to reduce Social Security benefits if the bill was sure to be blocked by Democratic opposition in the Senate.

But the bill the Republicans are advocating, unlike President Bush's proposal, would not reduce retirement benefits - and would do nothing else to address the problem of eventual Social Security insolvency.

On issues like tax cuts and flag burning, House Republicans have made a practice of passing legislation popular with their conservative base even if the bills are likely to die in the Senate. Republicans are convinced that the Social Security legislation will be politically popular, whether or not it becomes law.

The bill would use the temporary surplus in the Social Security system, now being spent on other government programs, to pay for private investment accounts for workers. Rather than increasing taxes or cutting those other programs, the plan calls for borrowing more money and increasing the federal debt.

It will be interesting to see if a plan that greatly increases the federal deficit and national debt will fly with the American people, even if it does partially include the President's investment accounts.