- Pictured above (above): President Bush listens to Bob McFadden, right, , of Medford, N.J. Tuesday, Jan. 11,
2005, during an event at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium on Social
Security reform held in Washington. McFadden was
invited to give his views on social security. The people who took part
in the forum were chosen for their basic agreement with the president's
position. McFadden said, "I
believe, personally, that if it's in a personal account, I can invest
my money better than the government." Another participant, Josh Wright
from central Utah, said personal accounts would encourage more
independence, allow investors to pass on their savings to their heirs
and maybe even be more reliable than the Social Security system
itself.[more] and [more]
Pictured (left): The president appeared here in a town-hall-style event
that included two community college students who returned to the
classroom with the help of federal financial aid. Kim Wilkerson, a
mother who has attended Florida Community College part time since 2002,
said she would not have been able to afford to return to school without
her Pell Grant and student loans. "Without that, it would have been
impossible to go," she told Bush. [more]