During the past few years, a number of leading Wall Street brokers have been busy selling the nation on privatizing Social Security. Charles Schwab, head of the eponymous brokerage, has held a series of "investor forums" on the subject and proselytized in the nation's op-ed pages. Dan Cook of Goldman Sachs sits on the board of a conservative think tank whose top priority is the "reform" of Social Security. Stockbroker Richard Gilder has been quietly offering political and financial backing to selected candidates for Congress who express support for a private retirement system.

Schwab, Cook, and Gilder were also busy with another project these past few years: pouring money into the presidential campaign of George W. Bush, who backs their call for a semiprivatized Social Security system. Their contributions were part of a flood of Wall Street money that flowed into Bush's coffers. Security brokers and investment managers account for 71 of the names on the Mother Jones 400. They doled out a staggering $19 million in campaign cash, of which $10.2 million went to the GOP and $8.7 million to the Democrats.

That disparity is particularly striking given that Wall Street firms got just about everything they wanted from the Clinton-Gore administration: a big cut in the capital gains tax, free trade agreements -- including a deal with China, where American banks and brokerage houses are eager to expand -- and the gutting of Glass-Steagall, a Depression-era law that prevented banks, stockbrokers, and insurance companies from entering each other's business. The latter step, which paves the way for the emergence of financial supermarkets that peddle everything from checking accounts to auto insurance, came after two decades of heavy lobbying and was signed into law by Clinton in November 1999. "I see no difference between the Republicans and Democrats," says Steven Holzman, a managing partner with the Cypress Funds whose $107,000 in donations to the GOP wasn't enough to earn him a spot among the 400 largest donors. "Both are pro-business, which is what I care about."

Many of Holzman's colleagues, however, do see a difference. Bush, who claims Social Security is heading toward bankruptcy, wants individuals to be allowed to use 2 percent of their payroll withholdings to buy stocks, bonds, and mutual funds through a bank or brokerage house. Gore, whose contributors include labor unions that are dead set against any form of privatization, had a more modest plan. It would have allowed individuals to establish private retirement accounts as a supplement to Social Security.

Just what would the Bush plan mean to Wall Street? Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., says administrative costs associated with Bush's proposal would be at least double those of the existing Social Security system. Those additional costs -- mostly hefty fees and commissions for bankers and stockbrokers -- could come to as much as $10 billion annually by 2010.

Gabriel predicted that Schwab (No. 73, with $393,500 in donations, all but $7,200 to the GOP) would be one of the top winners under the Bush plan. During the campaign, the head of the nation's largest discount brokerage took the lead in promoting privatization. In a widely published op-ed last August, Schwab called for a frank discussion about the future of Social Security, "without the fear-mongering rhetoric that typically surrounds the issue." He said a "serious national effort is needed to restore the concept of saving as part of the American ethic." A Schwab vice chairman, Linnet Deily, also gave $100,000 to the GOP and its candidates.

According to Gabriel, Bush's Social Security plan would also be a bonanza for Goldman Sachs, which would be "well-positioned to benefit from higher trading volumes, more public offerings, and rising equity prices." Dan Cook, a partner at the investment bank, gave $151,000 to Republican campaigns. When not trading securities, Cook sits on the board of the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas. Last October, the center kicked off a nationwide television advertising campaign to tout the benefits of privatizing the entire Social Security system. As the campaign headed into the final stretch, the group released a study designed to counter criticisms of Bush's proposal and claimed that Gore's competing plan would lead to huge budget deficits. (Bush, in return, gave the center a plug on its Web site, calling the group "worth your time and your donations.")

Richard Gilder, a partner at the firm of Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Company (No. 145, $288,725), is the founder and honorary chairman of the little-known Club for Growth, a political action committee based in Washington, D.C., whose members include prominent financiers, business owners, and right-wing activists such as Thomas Rhodes, president of the National Review. Early each election cycle, the Club holds interviews with potential candidates for public office and, if it likes what it hears, makes mass donations to their campaigns. Gilder and the Club backed 10 successful congressional candidates, all Republicans. Other members of the Club who gave generously to the GOP include Frank Baxter (No. 326, $177,000) and George Spix (No. 366, $163,000).

The list of other brokers on the Mother Jones 400 reads like a Who's Who of Wall Street. John Hennessy, the chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston's private equity division, cashed in at No. 312 with $164,362. A former top official at the Treasury Department under Richard Nixon, Hennessy is Bush's self-described "point man" with the financial industry. He organized fundraising events for the GOP last year and, according to American Banker, spent 5 to 10 hours a week pressing fellow Wall Streeters to ante up. David Williams (No. 307, $188,000) is chairman of Alliance Capital Management, which oversees $474 billion, making it one of the world's largest investment managers.

Donald Marron, chairman of investment house PaineWebber, didn't make the Mother Jones 400, but his firm was one of the leading donors in the financial industry, ladling out $1.4 million, about two-thirds of it to the GOP. Marron was widely mentioned as a candidate for Treasury Secretary, and Bush's plan to privatize Social Security borrowed heavily from a report authored by a Marron-led commission on retirement sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank based in Washington, D.C. Last August, Marron told CNN that Social Security offered "a very poor return" and that individuals "are going to do better" by investing in stocks.

Soon after Marron uttered those words, U.S. stock markets tanked, underscoring one of the chief dangers of the Bush plan, namely the potential for dramatic fluctuations in the stock market. But for Wall Street, privatizing Social Security will ensure that brokers profit during bear markets as well as bull markets. "Wall Street would make loads of money in fees no matter what the market does," says Doug Henwood, editor of Left Business Observer, an economics journal. Stockbrokers "are the house," Henwood adds, "and the house always wins."