President Bush will address a joint session of the General Assembly on Thursday to sell private accounts as the best way to revamp a Social Security system threatened with insolvency.

The president “looks forward to returning to Columbia” and wants to highlight South Carolina as “an outstanding example of a state legislature keeping their fiscal house in order,” said White House spokesman Taylor Gross on Friday.

The visit is part of the “60 stops in 60 days” tour — in which Bush and top administration officials, starting in early March, began barnstorming the nation to promote their version of Social Security reform.

Though recent polls show enthusiasm for private accounts waning, reliably Republican South Carolina has signaled strong support.

“The president is among friends here in the state General Assembly,” said House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, who co-chaired the president’s S.C. re-election campaign. “We greatly anticipate hearing his message on Social Security reform.

“He is always welcome in South Carolina.”

Bush, who credits South Carolina for making the 2000 Republican presidential nomination clearly his, already has visited the state six times since he took office.

His most recent trip was in February 2004, at the Port of Charleston. His most recent visit to Columbia was in 2003, when he addressed USC’s spring graduation class.

Bush’s visit marks the third address to the General Assembly for a sitting president since President Richard Nixon in 1972. Bush’s father spoke at the State House in 1989.

On Thursday morning, the president will fly from Washington to Columbia. After his appearance, to which all state officials are invited, he will fly to his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

At the State House, Bush likely will tell lawmakers what they already know: that the ratio of workers paying into Social Security to those receiving Social Security checks is shrinking.

He likely will note, as he has at past appearances around the nation, that by 2018 on its current course, the national retirement insurance program will take in less money than it is slated to give out.

Bush’s solution is to allow workers to invest 4 percent of what they now send to Social Security in stocks and bonds.

South Carolina has signaled its appreciation for the idea.

In 2002 and 2004, South Carolinians elected, respectively, U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint, who vigorously championed private accounts during their campaigns.

Republicans who dominate both the S.C. House and Senate can be counted on to cheer loudly when Bush outlines the case for allowing workers to invest in what he calls “personal accounts.”

The Democrats in the audience will not be cheering.

They generally call private accounts an unworkable gutting of the 70-year-old program and suggest that it can be made solvent with less drastic changes.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Columbia Democrat, says Bush is coming to South Carolina because Americans have generally reacted coolly to his Social Security plan.

“Every time he’s in trouble, he comes to South Carolina and we bail him out,” Clyburn said. “I just hope South Carolinians have the sense not to this time.”

Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.