Reid and Pelosi to Challenge Bush on Iraq Exit Strategy and Social Security

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid will issue a pre-State of the Union Challenge tomorrow for the Bush administration to outline an exit strategy for Iraq .

"The president needs to spell out a real and understandable plan for the unfinished work ahead: defeat the growing insurgency, rebuild Iraq, increase political participation by all parties, especially moderates, and increase international involvement," Reid will say, according to his prepared remarks.

"Most of all we need an exit strategy so we know what victory is and how we can get there; so that we know what we need to do and so that we know when the job is done."

"There is a gap between saying to reformers that the ` United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors,' and an administration that stands by in virtual silence as Saudi dissidents disappear," one portion of Reid's speech says.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi will issue a challenge on Social Security.

"We can solve this long-term challenge without dismantling Social Security and without allowing this administration's false declaration of a crisis to justify a privatization plan that is unnecessary," she intends to say, according to prepared remarks.

"Let there be no doubt in anyone's mind: Democrats will fight to see Social Security strengthened, not destroyed," she is to say.

Bush is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress and a prime time nationwide television audience on Wednesday. While he is expected to discuss Iraq , and the national elections that were held on Sunday, he has signaled he intends to make Social Security a focus of his speech.