Bush Pitches Retirement Plan to Workers


CANTON, Miss. - President Bush pitched his newly remodeled Social Security solvency plan to blue-collar workers Tuesday as the White House signaled that he wasn't wedded to a particular formula for reducing promised future benefits.



Bush's plan, which would allow benefits to rise the most for lower-income retirees, has drawn widespread Democratic and some Republican criticism since he unveiled it last Thursday at a prime-time news conference.

In his auto-plant speech, the president called the new indexing proposal an attempt "to help people come up with the solution" to Social Security's solvency problems. He said it would help the neediest retirees.

"That makes sense to me. I hope it makes sense to the U.S. Congress," Bush said.

His indexing plan "solves most of the long term problem," he added.

Earlier, White House spokesman Trent Duffy told reporters aboard Air Force One that the president wasn't troubled that the indexing plan had drawn some GOP criticism and said that he was "open to all ideas."

"He has put out his proposal on a way to protect the lowest-level income workers. But in the context of the legislative process, he'll welcome other ideas to perfect or to make the best system," Duffy said.

The spokesman suggested that changes were to be expected as the measure goes through the legislative process. "The bottom line is, it is moving forward in both houses," said Duffy.

Bush first talked about curbing future benefits at his news conference last week, and Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., swiftly announced plans to hold weekly hearings on Social Security in May and present legislation to the panel in June.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert has expressed unease at moving too quickly on so sensitive an issue, and GOP officials said he told a closed-door meeting of senior lawmakers during the day that no decision has been made on the timing of bringing Social Security legislation before the full House. These officials spoke on condition of anonymity, noting that the discussions are private.

Bush spoke to about 2,000 workers at the sprawling, nonunion Nissan North America plant.

It was his first excursion outside the Washington, D.C., area since he added the benefit-indexing feature to his plan. In the past, Bush mainly emphasized his proposal to let workers under age 55 divert a portion of their Social Security payroll taxes into private investment accounts.

He promoted the personal account plan again in Tuesday's speech. But, bowing to criticism that such private accounts would do little to fix Social Security's finances, Bush is now focusing his energy on an overhaul in which initial benefits would rise the most for low-income workers.

Under Bush's revised plan, low-income workers would continue to have their benefits linked to the growth of wages. The wealthiest seniors would have their initial benefits tied to price inflation, which usually rises more slowly than wages. For everyone in between, initial benefits would be figured by a sliding scale between price indexing and wage indexing. The White House has not said what income levels would trigger which benefit increases.

Not all Republicans are keen on the indexing idea.

"I'm not overjoyed about that," Sen. Trent Lott (news, bio, voting record), R-Miss., told reporters before Bush left the state. Lott said he thought such an indexing plan could lead the nation "toward a welfare system." But Lott predicted that Congress would approve a Social Security overhaul plan sometime this year. "I'm prepared to cast a tough vote," he said.

Proponents of the indexing plan say it would erase about 70 percent of Social Security's long-term deficit. Critics argue that the slower growth in benefits would fall hardest on middle-income Americans. Congressional Democrats attacked Bush anew on Tuesday.

"I believe the president's objective is to privatize and eliminate Social Security as a guarantee for all Americans," Rep. Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record) of Maryland said at a news conference.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said repeatedly that "Democrats know how to fix Social Security." She offered no specific suggestions, but she said Democrats stand ready to meet with Republicans for bipartisan talks as soon as he abandons his call for private accounts.