Lawmakers welcome Bush

President Bush urges Social Security reforms during a speech Monday at the Statehouse. Gerald Herbert/The Associated Press e-mail this story Related Related stories: • Residents split on Bush plan Online extra • Poll: Do you support President Bush's plan for Social Security? Related Web site • Follow Bush's tour • Bush's Social Security plan Photo gallery • Images from Bush's visit • Bush visits the Upstate (2003) Click on the help icons for information on these links and any programs needed to open them.

With the vast generation of baby boomers at the brink of retirement, the program is running out of even the funny money on which it operates, he told South Carolina's top officials in a televised address from the Statehouse.

"There is a hole in the safety net for younger Americans (and) there is no vault holding your cash waiting for you to retire ... but a filing cabinet filled with IOUs," he said.

It was state number 22 on a 60-stop tour Bush is making to drum up public support and with it, pressure on a Congress where some members favor an array of alternatives or are reluctant to tackle the issue. But it comes at a time when his personal popularity and backing for his plan are falling, recent polls have shown.

Bush's private investment accounts would be voluntary and would involve up to one-third of each worker's payroll tax. While Bush says it would preserve the promised benefits to retirees and those age 55 and up, it would scale back benefits for younger ones.

Opponents argue the transitional costs would be enormous and dangerous and contend that Bush hasn't offered enough details.

Bush said his plan offers certainty and security in a modernized, functional system: "Telling younger workers they have to save money in a 1930s retirement system is like telling them that they have to use a cell phone with a rotary dial."

Bush made it plain that while many ideas are acceptable options, he won't consider raising Social Security tax rates or any plan that offers only a stopgap fix.

It was the friendly, almost gushing reception Bush has come to expect in South Carolina.

Philosophically, it was more mixed.

Rep. John Scott, D-Columbia, said he is pleased that Bush is seeking to fix the program's long-term problems, but has strong reservations "whether the general public at this point is ready to make that big leap of investing in the stock market."

While direct government investing, perhaps in the bond market, might be among the acceptable alternatives, Scott said the stock market's current malaise is ample reason to be wary of that solution.

Rep. Dan Tripp, R-Mauldin, said Bush presented "a workable plan," as evidenced by participation in private accounts by state employees in South Carolina, federal workers nationwide and members of Congress.

Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg, said that despite wide divergence of opinions on fixing Social Security, there wouldn't be a meaningful solution unless it's reached in a bipartisan consensus.

Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of Seneca, who supports Bush's plan in concept, said the president did an "excellent job" in defining the problem.

"I anticipate and hope that after his 60-day tour, the president will present more specific ideas to the nation," Graham said.

Sen. Jim DeMint of Greenville praised Bush for "just laying out the problem in simple terms." DeMint said he talked with Bush on the flight from Washington and predicted that the president soon will "put more meat on the bones" of his plan.

After the speech, Bush was engulfed by a bipartisan wave of legislators who sought to shake his hand, touch his shoulder, have a photo taken with him, make eye contact or get a presidential autograph of the day's bill calendar. Or all five.

Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, caught Bush at the center aisle and had him turn as an aide took a picture. Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D_Orangeburg, posed with Bush and Rep. Gloria Haskins, R-Greenville, a native of Colombia, talked with him in Spanish as he signed her calendar.

Some protesters marched through downtown to demonstrate against Bush's Social Security plan but were isolated by police at the corner of Gervais and Assembly streets just off the Statehouse grounds.

U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, a Columbia Democrat who opposes Bush's plan, addressed one rally of opponents and then talked to students at Allen University on Monday in what he described as a "teach-in" on Social Security. Clyburn and other Democrats argue there is no crisis in the Social Security system.

Rep. Carl Anderson, D-Georgetown, whose son was killed in Iraq several months ago, led Bush into the House chamber.

Those looking for an answer to speculation that House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, will be nominated by Bush to be ambassador to Canada didn't get one.

When asked if he and the president discussed the issue, Wilkins, who was Bush's state campaign chairman, said, "I'm not going to fuel speculation with further comment."

Bush's 35-minute address was interrupted by applause 13 times.

The House chamber's gallery was filled with media and approximately 175 invited guests, many of them Republican activists, including former Gov. James Edwards and former U.S. Attorney Strom Thurmond Jr.

State senators lined the right wall —state officials, including Gov. Mark Sanford, Graham and DeMint, and the four Republican U.S. House members, the left. Neither Clyburn nor Democratic Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. of York, who opposes Bush's plan, attended.

There was some disagreement as to whether Bush was speaking to all South Carolinians or just Graham.

"I didn't read that into it," Wilkins said. "It was the message of a leader who has recognized a problem."

But Sen. David Thomas, R-Greenville, and Rep. Doug Jennings, D-Bennettsville, saw Bush's visit as a pointed message to Graham not to push alternatives so far as to damage the overall goal of shoring up the system.

Graham has specifically detailed how he would finance the transition to a new system by raising the Social Security tax limit on salaries to $160,000 from $90,000. Originally reluctant to sanction a tax increase, the White House in recent weeks has said the issue is on the table.

Thomas said, "It's Lindsey Graham's state and (Bush) is sending a message and the message is that Social Security is serious, we can come to some conclusion, but please don't block my program. It wasn't a throw-down-the-gauntlet message —it was a conciliatory message that we've got to do something."

Jennings said Bush's visit was "not so subtle pressure on Sen. Graham from the top, right in his front yard. It's a compliment to Lindsey Graham; it shows how his ideas are gaining traction in Washington and how effective he's becoming in reaching across the aisle and it's gotten the White House's attention."

Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop said the senator and Bush aren't adversaries and "are on the same sheet of music."

Sanford said Bush's remarks were directed toward "the greater audience of South Carolinians who have a dog in this fight, whether they're seniors collecting benefits or a young person on their way."

The presidential visit on a day when the Legislature isn't normally in session didn't cost taxpayers extra, legislative officials said, because Thursday's session will be cancelled, leaving the three-day week intact.

On the way back to Columbia Metropolitan Airport and Air Force One, Bush stopped at Rockaway Athletic Club, a Columbia eatery, for lunch.