Bush Hits GOP Outposts to Promote Social Security Plan

NEW YORK -- President Bush and Vice President Cheney campaigned for overhauling Social Security in two Republican outposts, reflecting the president's need to whip up enthusiasm for the initiative among his party's base, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.

The travel schedules for Bush and Cheney put them in areas they won in the 2004 election and include some of the states that have the highest proportion of residents collecting money from the Social Security program.

Bush was in Arizona Monday, a state he won in November, and the vice president stopped in Bakersfield, Calif., a Republican area of a Democratic-leaning state that is represented by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas.

“I can understand people being nervous about a Social Security dialogue,'' Bush said to an audience of supporters in Tucson, Ariz., warning that the system would go bankrupt without a “permanent fix.''

Cheney said the president's plan for private accounts will benefit younger workers. “It's about your kids and your grandkids,'' he told the crowd in Bakersfield.

-- NYSSCPA.org News Staff

Posted on 3/22/05