COLUMBUS, Ohio – Sen. John Kerry accused President Bush on Sunday of crafting a “secret” plan… COLUMBUS, Ohio – Sen. John Kerry accused President Bush on Sunday of crafting a “secret” plan to radically overhaul Social Security, an attack aimed at making seniors nervous and raising doubts about whether Bush can be trusted to level with the public.

“Just yesterday, we found out that the president told his biggest and wealthiest donors about his big January surprise. He’s going to `come out strong’ to fight for his plan to privatize Social Security.

“This may be a good surprise for the wealthiest people and the well-connected in America, but it’s a disaster for America’s middle class,” Kerry said from the pulpit of Mount Olivet Baptist Church, a predominantly black congregation in Columbus.

Kerry has developed a penchant for accusing Bush of secret plans, a theme that dovetails with charges about the distortion of prewar intelligence and echoes President Richard Nixon’s “secret plan” to win the Vietnam War.

Recently, Kerry has managed to force the president to deny plans to bring back a military draft, for instance, but he’s also opened himself to the charge of baseless alarmism.

“John Kerry’s misleading senior scare tactics are just another example of a candidate who will say anything to get elected, no matter how false his accusations,” said Bush spokesman Steve Schmidt.

Bush and his allies typically avoid the term “privatization,” which, at least to critics, smacks of Wall Street types taking a cut of workers’ savings. Schmidt said the president had never uttered the word, taking issue with a news report Sunday that quoted Bush telling top donors last month that the plan was one of his top goals for a second term.

“I’m going to come out strong after my swearing in with fundamental tax reform, tort reform, privatizing of Social Security,” he said at a closed-door luncheon, according to the Sunday New York Times Magazine.

Schmidt called it a biased thirdhand account.

But Kerry pounced, unleashing a TV spot warning that Bush plans changes that would cut benefits by up to 40 percent for future retirees, citing estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The president, taking the day off with 16 days left to campaign, has made little secret of wanting to fundamentally alter Social Security. To shore up its finances, he would let younger workers invest some of their payroll taxes in the stock market.

Seniors need not worry about benefit cuts, Bush said Saturday at a stop in Sunrise, Fla., a retiree haven.

But he made no such promise to younger workers, instead emphasizing that the system would fail in about 25 years under its current structure.

Kerry and other critics say Bush’s plan amounts to privatization. The Democrat called it a “risky plan” that could cut payouts by $500 a month.

His implication was that current retirees would be affected, though independent analysts agree that under Bush’s approach, only future retiree benefits are at stake.

At a rally Sunday afternoon in Pembroke Pines, Fla., near Fort Lauderdale, Kerry repeated his “January surprise” allegation, telling the crowd, “I will never privatize Social Security. I’ll never cut the benefits, and I won’t raise the retirement age.”

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