Shifts focus from personal accounts to long-term solvency

*( Some might call this a flip flop)*


LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP) -- President Bush rejected any "Band-Aid
solutions" that do not permanently solve Social Security's future fiscal
problems, switching his focus Thursday from touting personal accounts to
the program's long-term solvency.

"We need to solve this issue now and forever. The longer we wait, the
worse ti gets to solve it," Bush said from the stage of the Kentucky
Center for the Performing Arts.

The president started a two-day Southern swing to push the top item on
his domestic agenda -- an overhaul of Social Security that includes
allowing younger workers to set up personal retirement accounts with a
portion of Social Security payroll taxes that would be invested in
stocks and bonds.

In return, future retirees who choose to set up those accounts would see
a lower traditional benefit check.

Bush's Social Security travels -- now to 11 states since his February 2
State of the Union address -- have two primary goals: comforting
Republicans who are wary of the possible political repercussions in next
year's midterm congressional elections and shoring up GOP lawmakers who
already are on his side on this issue.

Rep. Anne Northup, a Republican elected five times in the
Democratic-leaning Lousiville-based district, who supports letting
workers create personal accounts, got a huge plug from Bush.

"I'm really proud of the job Anne Northup is doing," Bush said. "She is
smart. She is capable. She wants to confront problems now before they
become worse. She loves her family. She loves Louisville, Kentucky."

But many other Republicans are skeptical of his proposal, so Bush has
been attempting to calm seniors' fears about the changes and thus
provide political cover for GOP lawmakers.

Thursday's conversation before a mostly hand-picked audience included
two local grandfathers and their granddaughters. The White House was
seeking to show that there are both seniors and young people who believe
private accounts are the only way to preserve a strong Social Security
system for future generations.

"Nothing changes for people who are retired or nearly retired," Bush
said. "More and more citizens understand that and therefore more and
more grandfathers are asking the president `How about my granddaughter?
I understand I'm safe, what are you going to do about her?"'

The president was interrupted four times by people yelling protests of
his Social Security plans. Each time, they 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."

Meanwhile, Allan Hubbard, Bush's top economic adviser, rejected
bipartisan proposals that the administration put aside its drive to
create private accounts and focus on the system's solvency.

In an interview published in Thursday's editions of USA Today, he also
dismissed a Democratic proposal that investment accounts be created as a
supplement to Social Security, not as a part of the system that diverts
a portion of payroll taxes.

Before he left the White House Thursday, Bush met with several House
Republicans, part of a series of such sessions that are part of the
president's lobbying blitz on the issue.

Democrats, meanwhile, remain almost unanimously united in their
opposition to Bush's desire for private accounts, saying they would
saddle the nation with trillions of dollars of additional debt without
fixing Social Security's long term financial problems.

Later Thursday, Bush was taking his message to Montgomery, Alabama, and
then traveling on for similar events Friday in Memphis, Tennessee, and
Shreveport, Louisiana.

Montgomery is represented by two Republicans, Reps. Terry Everett and
Mike Rogers, neither of whom have yet taken a position on Bush's plan.

Rogers was the only one of the state's seven GOP congressmen who had
announced beforehand that he was planning to attend the event alongside
Bush.


Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/....ap/index.html