For months, the White House has publicly maintained the fiction that presidential events are “public” and that Bush is exposed to “different viewpoints.” Now, however, the Bush gang is trying a slightly different tack.
President Bush today is scrapping the usual format for his cross-country campaign to fix Social Security.
Instead of just pitching his ideas during a stop at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, he will take a seat at a table with members of the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System to highlight a program that resembles what he’s proposing for Social Security.
“He is going to be hearing about a program in Ohio that has been successful that shares some of the same principles he is proposing for Social Security,” said White House spokesman Allen Abney.
The event is part of the Bush administration’s 60-city tour to promote his proposal to change Social Security. The invitation-only audience of about 150 people will include members of PERS and the State Teachers and School Employees retirement systems. Local police, firefighters and chamber of commerce members also will be on hand.
Neither the audience nor reporters will be able to ask questions, Abney said.
First, there’s the substantive problem. Ohio’s PERS bears very little resemblance to Bush’s approach to Social Security — there’s virtually no risk. When the system lost money because of its investments in Enron, the traditional plan delivered its pension benefits. An analogous program to Bush’s privatization scheme? Not so much.
Then, there’s the politics. I’m delighted to see the White House finally acknowledge that Bush’s taxpayer-financed events are “invitation-only.” (The next step would to explain why they’re invitation-only, but an admission is a positive first step.) But that last part is the kicker: the invitation-only guests aren’t even able to ask Bush questions? Bush is anxious to hear good ideas, but he holds events at which people are not allowed to speak to him?
I guess the masquerade is over. Instead of having scripted sycophants telling Bush want he wants to hear, participants at today’s event will simply listen and nod in agreement. Bush decides; you concur — just the way the president likes it.
Post Script: The paragraph describing the PERS system has been corrected.