Protesters Greet President During Visit To Tout Social Security
Mar 10, 2005, 6:20 PM
(LOUISVILLE) -- President Bush promoted his overhaul of Social Security to a mostly friendly audience on Thursday while protesters a few blocks away railed against the central part of his plan -- allowing workers to create private investment accounts.
Bush focused on the long-term solvency of the Depression-era retirement system while speaking to a town hall-style gathering at The Kentucky Center.
"We need to solve this issue now and forever," Bush told the Louisville audience. "The longer we wait the worse it gets to solve it."
Bush was joined on stage by two sets of grandfathers-granddaughters who worried about the long-term viability of Social Security.
Rebecca Dean, a 22-year-old University of Louisville senior, told Bush she liked the idea of being able to divert a portion of her Social Security payroll taxes into private accounts that could be invested in stocks and bonds.
"I may have the opportunity to see money that's already being deducted from my paycheck and be able to take ownership of it," she said.
Meanwhile, protesters in a downtown square waved signs and shouted slogans while denouncing Bush's plan as a "risky scheme" that would saddle the nation with trillions of dollars in additional debt without fixing Social Security's long term financial problems.
The protest began a couple hours before Bush stopped in Louisville as part of a cross-country blitz to his top domestic priority.
"If you're going to spend 60 days traveling the country, fix something that's broke, not something that's worked perfect for 70 years," said Dan Borsch, 28, of Louisville, who was among the protesters.
The president was interrupted four times by people yelling protests of his Social Security plans. Outside the arena, protesters shouted "No more lies, don't privatize!" and some held signs that read "Hands off my Social Security." Demonstrators inside the arena were drowned out by either Bush talking over them or the crowd's cheers, or both.
"There are different points of view on the issue," Bush finally acknowledged, after the fourth interruption. "We don't need a Band-Aid solution."
During the hourlong event, Bush offered assurances that benefits would not be affected for those who are retired or close to retirement. He said the problem is there are going to be fewer workers paying in to a system paying benefits to the large "baby boom" generation.
"That math says we have a problem," Bush said.
Across town, AARP Kentucky, an interest group for older Kentuckians, held a forum to press its opposition to allowing workers to divert a portion of their Social Security payroll taxes into private investment accounts.
"We think we need to repair it and strengthen it, not destroy it," said Laurel True of Shelbyville, a member of AARP's executive council. "And we think that these private accounts is the first step in destroying it."
Patrice Blanchard, 53, of Crestwood, one of about 35 people who came to the AARP forum, said she gained a "real, emotional attachment" to Social Security at a relatively young age.
She said Social Security disability payments allowed her to continue raising her two younger sisters after their parents died while she was in college.
"If I hadn't had Social Security with them, I would not be where I am today," she said. "I wouldn't have been able to go to college. They would have ended up in an orphanage."
Blanchard said she is afraid allowing workers to create personal accounts could threaten Social Security's disability and survivor benefits.
Bush was to speak later Thursday in Montgomery, Ala., before heading to Memphis, Tenn.
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