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Bush's Road Tour Rolls On in Push to Sell Social Security Changes
By David E. Sanger, New York Times
June 3, 2005
When President Bush's Social Security plan first ran into headwinds, the White House began a 60-cities-in-60-days tour to drum up political support that could be used in Congress.
That approach proved insufficient. So Thursday, in Hopkinsville, Ky., Mr. Bush described his next tactic: the endless Social Security tour.
After explaining that he was going to visit his ranch in Crawford, Tex., he said:
"But after that I'm going to head back out again, and I'm going to spend time talking about Social Security every week until something gets done - because that's my job."
Between Hopkinsville and Crawford, he stopped here Thursday night for a $1.5 million fund-raiser for Senator Jim Talent, who will be running for re-election next year.
At the "town hall" meeting in Kentucky, Mr. Bush sought to emphasize the benefits of his Social Security plan for rural populations, part of a strategy to win over specific groups of voters to using personal accounts as part of an overhauled program of retirement benefits for younger workers.
He argued anew that the Social Security trust fund was no trust fund at all because the money is spent by Congress and replaced by a commitment to repay the fund in the future.
"People are paying their payroll taxes, the beneficiaries are receiving their benefits, and there's been money left over," the president said. "And that money has gone to government programs. And so all that's left in the Social Security trust is a file cabinet full of I.O.U.'s."
"When those I.O.U.'s come due, somebody has to pay for them, either through reduced benefits or greater taxes," he said to an enthusiastic crowd.
He talked at length to Erica Campbell, a 28-year-old nursing student who has set up a 401(k) retirement account. Mr. Bush used her as an example of a young worker eager to create an account that she can pass on to her daughter if she dies before depleting it in retirement.
"That's good," Mr. Bush said. "Doesn't it make sense to have a society in which people are constantly reminded about growth of their assets? It seems like to me it would cause people to pay pretty close attention to what the government's decision-making process is like."
In St. Louis on Thursday evening, he said, "Right now the government gets a whopping 1.8 percent return on your investment," arguing that in a "conservative mix" of stocks and bonds, workers could get a minimum of 4.5 percent return. He did not say over what period of time, or how the government might deal with prolonged market downturns.
Mr. Bush also told supporters of Mr. Talent, who beat Jean Carnahan in 2002 for a Missouri seat once held by her husband, Mel, that it was critical that Republicans retain control of the Senate.
And even with his Social Security plan stuck in Congress, Mr. Bush looked out at the audience - largely drawn from local businesses - and promised to pursue another big issue on which he campaigned last year.
"We've got to reform the tax code of the United States," he said to applause, "and we will."
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