On the same day President George W. Bush held a town hall meeting at the University of Notre Dame to pitch his proposal to reform Social Security, a bevy of Michigan's high-powered Democratic leaders held a town hall meeting of their own at the Saline Senior Center to offer up counterpoints against any move toward privatizing the 70-year-old program.
Some 70-80 area residents gathered Friday morning to hear and ask questions about the state of Social Security, quizzing U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) and U.S. Congressman John Dingell (D-Dearborn). Also attending the forum were Democratic state Reps. Pam Byrnes (52nd District), Kathy Angerer (55th District), Chris Kolb (53rd District), and state Sen. Liz Brater (18th District).
The elected officials sat at a table behind which a poster declared, "Privatization Makes Social Security Less Secure."
In her opening remarks, Angerer summarized the thrust of the forum's theme, declaring, "Our president wants to take our security out of the hands of the people and put it in corporate securities. We're not going to allow that to happen."
President Bush has proposed allowing people under 55 to divert up to a third of their Social Security tax into personal investment accounts. He made reforming Social Security a centerpiece of his State of the Union address last month.
On Friday, according to a White House transcript, he told those gathered in Indiana, "But one thing is for certain that Congress needs to know, that we have a problem that needs to be addressed." He urged Congress to "solve it now, before it is too late."
President Bush said the problem was "More people, living longer, getting greater benefits with fewer people paying into the system. The math doesn't work anymore."
Contrary to the president's assertions, however, the Democrats in Saline on Friday argued that Social Security is not in serious jeopardy and does not require major reform, despite a projected revenue-benefit gap arising in 2020.
"This is not an unusual crisis. We only need small, minor adjustments," Stabenow said, without going into specifics on what those tweaks might be.
Her vagueness on the details proved a point of frustration for Phelps Connor and his wife Jean of Ann Arbor, who believe privatization does not address Social Security's solvency issue.
"Where is the Democratic agenda?" asked Phelps Connor. "Why don't they come up with their own bill and put it on the table? Why are they not coming up with their own plan? Become proactive instead of reactive."
Stabenow said before Democrats proposed alternative solutions, the president must first take privatization off the table, "and then we'll talk to [him] about what to do."
It is the Democrats' refusal to discuss all the options that has deterred a bipartisan approach to solving the issues surrounding Social Security, according to Congressman Joe Schwarz of the 7th District (R-Battle Creek).
"For the Democrats to say they won't even discuss anything until privatization is taken off the table doesn't get us any closer to solving the problem," said Matt Marsden, Schwarz' chief-of-staff. "If we're going to talk about shoring up Social Security for the next 75 years, everything should be on the table."
Marsden said Schwarz did not plan to hold any town hall meetings on Social Security, saying right now there was no plan to present.
"We're not going to hold any town-hall meeting when we don't have anything to tell our constituents," he said.
Stabenow didn't disagree on Friday, saying, "One of the problems we're having with all this hoopla is that we have no written proposal. There is nothing in writing."
Nonetheless, the meeting in Saline was Stabenow's seventh of the day in a blitzkrieg across southeast Michigan to rouse opposition to Bush's privatization proposal.
Dingell, whose father was in Congress when Social Security was first passed, characterized the push for privatization as a "scam."
"Your Social Security is actuarially sound until 2052," Dingell said. "There is no crisis. People don't yet understand. They think [privatization] is something that threatens seniors, but it also threatens your kids and your grandchildren."
President Bush has said his proposal would not affect seniors currently receiving Social Security.
"My mission is to travel around this country saying to folks, we've got a problem, and to remind seniors that nothing will change, that you'll get your check," he said on Friday.
Stabenow said right now there was not the support in Congress to pass a privatization bill, which is in line with a recent USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll released this week that showed 59 percent of respondents don't believe Social Security needs to be changed in the near future.
Bill Martin, 65, of Manchester, appeared to represent the poll's findings regarding Americans' take on privatization.
"I think it's the stupidest idea I've ever heard," said Martin, who retired from General Motors 10 years ago. "It's going to pour a bunch of money into Wall Street and not help Social Security at all."
He said he believed proposals such as privatizing a portion of Social Security would "completely disassemble the safety net the Roosevelt administration put in place."