AP: Bush visit touting Social Security draws protests in Tampa

[ryban]

TAMPA, Fla. - President Bush returned to one of the most hotly contested regions in the November election Friday to promote his Social Security plan in hopes of winning over both wary Florida retirees and younger workers whose rocking-chair days are a long way off.

But the president faced a tough sell in Tampa, where about 250 people rallied by union and consumer groups protested the president's plan with a demonstration at a downtown park and a mile-long march to the convention center where the president was speaking. Bush addressed about 1,000 supporters at a ticketed event.

In Florida, potential changes in Social Security can have a dual impact - on future retirees pocketbooks and on the state's economy where an estimated $32 billion in Social Security benefits are spent each year.

The Tampa stop was the last of five cities visited by the president in the past two days.

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http://origin.jacksonville.com/tu-online/apnews/stories/020405/D8820QU04.shtml

[Cha]

1. Fuck you bush and all your

minions who want to steal Social Security from The People.


I hope your little "third rail of politics" does you in.

[FloridaPat]

2. Gee, they can find 250 protestors, but not the 1/2 million in NYC

before the invasion. Did they get new glasses you think?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. Peeling off hundred dollar bills of "political capital"

for nothing.

I see this as a "We tried but we need your help" issue for '06.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Nite Owl]

5. How was it?

Were you put in a distant area behind a fence or were you heard?

And welcome to DU!

[karlrschneider]

7. Woot! Welcome to DU, what part of TPA are you in if you care to say?

I lived there for 14 years (Town 'n Country)...
:toast:
edit: typo

[karlrschneider]

6. GOOD for the Tampons! (I lived there from 1979 to 1993)

That's where I met my SO in 81 (we're still together), and still like the Bucs. :D

[bozeman]

8. Cool

I don't think many people are happy about shrub's plans for SS.

[calimary]

9. Lemme tellya! There's a little old lady in the neighborhood who's gone

from "I always vote straight Republican...but I just don't know about this mess in Iraq..." (before the election) to "well, I don't know what I am, a Democrat or a Republican, but what they're trying to do to Social Security...!" That second remark - just THIS AFTERNOON. I was amazed. We got to talking about it when I drove her to a hair appointment. She says she's conservative, but she also says she does not like what is going on now and what the so-called conservatives AND republi-CONS are doing. She actually agreed with me, rather forcefully, when I said I didn't think a guy who came into office with money in the bank and squandered it all, and gave out tax cuts while he threw himself a nice big messy war to pay for (which respected economists say you just DO NOT DO), and ran up an obscenely huge debt after Clinton left him with a surplus. My point was - WHY are we trusting this idiot with "fixing" Social Security? We can all see what his idea of "fixing" things is. I was astounded. She didn't even disagree. She was totally on the same page. Never thought I'd see that.

[ignatius 2]

10. Don't mess with the seniors, Monkeyman, they will

absolutely tear you a new one.

You think you have problems in Iraq, wait 'til grandma and grandpa see how bad you are trying to screw them.

[rodeodance]

11. gotta keep the resistance going--on and on, city by city........