Looking for higher ground on the economy, President Obama vowed to fight Republican “newfangled schemes” to privatize Social Security.
“I want to encourage people to save more on their own,” Obama said in Ohio. “But I don’t want them taking money out of Social Security so that people are putting that into the stock market.”
The president, away from Washington for an extended fundraising-and-policy swing through key states, made the remarks in a home-style town hall in a Columbus back yard.
The event, attended by a few dozen local residents, followed a kitchen-table meeting between the president and a local family aimed at highlighting how various policies like health care reform and stimulus are helping regular Americans.
With the economy showing only modest improvements and unemployment stuck at 9.5 percent, the White House is expending more effort showcasing Obama’s personal appeal as a way to sell his policies.
In shirtsleeves out in the yard with the cameras positioned to take in a picnic bench, a tree house and other reassuring images, Obama fielded mostly friendly questions and vowed to hold off efforts to turn Social Security over to Wall Street.
“Social Security is not in crisis,” Obama said. “There are some fairly modest changes that could be made, without resorting to any newfangled schemes, that would continue Social Security for another 75 years where everybody would get the benefits that they deserve.”
A recent trustees report on Social Security delivered a grim assessment of the entitlement’s long-term solvency, warning that significant policy changes are needed to meet future demands.
Former President George W. Bush unsuccessfully championed a plan to allow workers to invest a portion of their Social Security earnings in the stock market.
The subsequent flameout in the stock market startled many Washington politicians from trying to resurrect the issue. But the current election season has brought a new wave of interest in the issue, with some Republican candidates calling for a reconsideration of the plan.
The White House, seeing an opening to draw some clear distinctions between Obama policies and Republican economic proposals, seized on the issue and made opposing privatization the centerpiece of Obama’s recent weekly radio address.
But the effort may be too little, too late to help Democrats in November. A new Associated Press-GfK poll found Obama with the lowest marks to date on his handling of the economy.
Just 41 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s economic leadership, and 56 percent disapprove. Pollsters noted that 49 percent give him an overall positive job approval rating, a disconnect attributed to his personal appeal.
That likability factor is expected to be more heavily featured as Obama campaigns for Democrats in the fall — but without his name on the ballot, could provide limited traction for Democratic candidates.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, reacting to the president’s visit in his home state, continued his party’s drumbeat of criticism that Obama’s policies are job killers.
“The fact is, the president’s ‘stimulus’ spending spree is not delivering the results he promised it would,” Boehner said. “More than 130,000 Ohioans have lost their jobs since February 2009, and the state’s unemployment rate remains at a painfully high 10.5 percent.”
