Another phase-out flame-out?
Give Rep. Jim Kolbe (R) of Arizona <$Ad$> credit. Despite pressure from their congressional leadership and the White House to hold townhall meetings on Social Security in their districts, most representatives and senators seem poised to spend next week’s congressional recess hiding from constituents at the nearest undisclosed location. But Kolbe is holding meetings and real ones where anyone can get in.
But privatization doesn’t seem to be going over too well.
Says local station KVOA: “More than once, Congressman Jim Kolbe had to pacify a deeply divided crowd Saturday at Pima Community College. Many blasted the Congressman and the social security Deputy Commissioner James Lockhart, with questions about their Social Security plan, especially on the idea of private accounts.”
Two TPM Reader-Correspondents also reported in from the field and they seem to feel that the crowd wasn’t so much divided as just spirited in their opposition to phase-out.
First, from JM …
Went to a townhall meeting with Jim Kolbe and James Lockhart held in Tucson, AZ.
Kolbe did a brief sketch of his plan, and Lockhart went over some (in my opinion, and some others in the audience) definitely pro privatization scenarios. Then it was opened up for questions.
There were approximately 150 – 175 people in attendance, and based on the response to the questions asked I would say it was 90% against privatization. The 2 things that elicited the greatest positive response were 1) Moving the cap on SSA Tax wages up (with I would say a majority in favor of total elimination of the cap; 2) Repeal the Bush tax cuts.
I do not see any way that this can be spun by Mr. Kolbe to have shown support for his plan or any other privatization plan.
And a more detailed account from TPM Reader AP …
Jim Kolbe brought James Lockhart to Tucson yesterday to flack for his SS bill. Mr. Kolbe began with a short speech, in which he noted that he had been working on “fixing” Social Security for ten years, and that the “problem” is based on “established actuarial data.” He referred to his statements regarding the insolvency of Social Security as, “not a scare tactic but a mathematical fact.” He continued to discuss Personal Accounts, but allowed that “PSA does not fix the problem.” He then introduced Mr. Lockhart.
Mr. Lockhart delivered a PowerPoint presentation titled “Strengthening Social Security,” which, of course, began with the assumption that there is a problem with Social Security. Needless to say, all his numbers were based on the Intermediate Assessment in the 2004 Trustees report, and did not at all address the Low-cost Assessment. He also had a “calculator” which he claimed had been developed in co-operation with AARP. Needless to say, this “calculator” showed that the only way to “save” Social Security is to institute “Personal Accounts.”
I’d estimate that 200 people turned out – it was standing room only. The great majority of attendees appeared to be well over fifty years old. There was a strong, perhaps even vehement, bias against both Kolbe and Lockhart. Several times Kolbe called for people to allow Mr. Lockhart to continue his presentation, at one point testily exclaiming, “Folks, come on!” One of Mr. Lockhart’s slides, a quote from President Bush’s recent State of the Union speech, drew loud boo’s and even raspberries from the crowd.
Once, the floor was given over to the audience, all but one of the speakers came out against private accounts. At one point, Mr. Kolbe requested a show of hands for several different “solutions.” Elimination of the salary cap while simultaneously limiting benefits to current (indexed) levels received well over 50%, perhaps as much as 75%. Mr. Kolbe tried to suggest that this would be unfair to people such as Bill Gates and received: “Who cares?” and “So what?” in response.
I was called on near the end of the meeting, and attempted to challenge the whole notion that there is a problem. I noted that eight years ago, Mr. Kolbe was predicting bankruptcy for Social Security in 2027, and that now, eight years later, this date has slid out fifteen years. I further noted that the “crisis” is based on the fairly pessimistic numbers in the intermediate assessment, and that the Low Cost assessment shows solvency for 75 years. Mr. Lockhart quickly jumped in to contradict me, and Mr. Kolbe immediately called on another speaker. Even though I had refutations of Mr. Lockhart’s counters, I was not allowed to present them. I’ll apologize for not being a strong enough debater.
While the crowd was substantially opposed to their position, it seems they were successful in planting the notion that there is a “problem,” if not a crisis. Further, on the only local news that carried the story that evening, the reporter barely covered the strong opposition, then gave both Kolbe and Lockhart time to make their points and concluded by stating that something needs to be done. So much for a liberal media.
We’ll be curious to see how this was all reported in the local papers.
