- Originally published in the Chicago Tribune on March 11, 2005 [more]
Social Security pitch `stunning,' he says
By Jeff Zeleny, Washington Bureau. Tribune news services contributed to this report
Published March 11, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday called
President Bush's suggestion that African-Americans could reap greater
rewards from overhauling Social Security a "stunning" argument that
ignored the true health issues facing blacks in this country.
As the president launched a two-day tour through the South to
build support for his controversial plan to revamp Social Security,
Democrats challenged a White House assertion that blacks would
particularly gain from Bush's proposed private retirement accounts
because they have fewer years to collect benefits considering they die
younger.
"It is puzzling to me that we are even having this debate about
whether Social Security is good or not for African-Americans," said
Obama, an Illinois Democrat. "I frankly found the statement that the
president made somewhat offensive."
While Bush argued his case that the future of the Social Security
program was in peril without substantial changes like creating private
investment accounts, Senate Democratic leaders tapped Obama to rebut
the argument about overhauling Social Security.
Before the president arrived in Montgomery, Ala., Obama, the only
black member of the Senate, conducted satellite interviews there from
Washington.
"There is no doubt a disparity in the lifetime opportunities
between white America and black America," Obama said. "The notion that
we would cynically use those disparities as a rationale for dismantling
Social Security as opposed to talking about how are we going to close
the health disparities gap that exists, and make sure that
African-American life expectancy is as long as the rest of this nation
... is stunning to me."
The administration and conservative scholars have quietly
suggested that blacks may be more inclined to support the Social
Security changes because, on average, whites live to age 78 and blacks
to 72. So blacks, after contributing to Social Security their whole
lives, are more likely to die before collecting their fair share.
"African-American males die sooner than other males do, which
means the system is inherently unfair to a certain group of people,"
Bush said this year at a forum on Social Security. "And that needs to
be fixed."
The president campaigned in Louisville and Montgomery to try to
ease anxiety among retirees and give political cover to Republican
lawmakers facing voters in midterm elections. Bush did not use the
African-American argument in either stop on Thursday.
Bush repeatedly has reassured those age 55 and over that the
Social Security checks they receive, or look forward to getting, won't
be touched.
Still, seniors--a group that votes in greater numbers than the
nation's youth--are wary about what will happen to the 70-year-old
government retirement system if lawmakers tinker with it.
Facing an uphill battle to enact changes, Republicans in Congress
recently have begun to emphasize the solvency problems of Social
Security over the controversial private retirement accounts.
On his road trip, Bush did too. But while he is focusing on
solvency, the president is not letting up on his push for private
accounts.
"I'm saying to members of the United States Congress, `Let's fix
this system permanently--no Band-Aids,'" Bush said in Montgomery. "Woe
be to the politician who doesn't come to the table and try to come up
with a solution."
- Democrats Launch Radio Campaign Assailing Bush’s Social Security Plan [more]