Black Caucus Urges Bush to Combat Race Gap

New York News ^ | January 27, 2005 | CARL HULSE

[Former Military Chick]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 - Black members of Congress presented President Bush on Wednesday with proposals for closing the gap between white and black Americans in health care, employment and education and said they would judge his response by weighing the State of the Union address and federal budget.

Meeting with Mr. Bush at the White House for only the third time, about 40 members of the Congressional Black Caucus pressed the president for more attention to what they see as striking disparities in opportunity between blacks and whites across a broad range of areas.

Leaders of the group said Mr. Bush had said he would review the group's policy agenda but had made no commitments. Acknowledging what has been a difficult relationship, they welcomed his willingness to sit down with them on Wednesday. Caucus members have contended that they had been frozen out since a session early in Mr. Bush's first term.

"A trip of 1,000 miles begins with a first step," said Representative Melvin Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, the chairman of the caucus.

The president's meeting came a day after he held a separate White House session with 22 black business and religious leaders who supported him. He encouraged them to back his plan to allow workers to divert part of their Social Security tax to individual investment accounts. White House officials say the idea should appeal to blacks because they have a shorter average life span than whites and end up putting more money into the retirement system than they take out.

The Congressional Black Caucus members are all Democrats.

Lawmakers at Wednesday's meeting said there was pointed discussion of Social Security. Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, the senior Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, said he had told Mr. Bush the caucus could not support any proposal that would cut into a guaranteed entitlement relied on by so many older black Americans.

Mr. Rangel also said he quoted to the president from a 1978 magazine article in which Mr. Bush, then running for Congress, was warning of an imminent collapse of Social Security unless it was privatized. "And he said, 'I lost,' " said Mr. Rangel, referring to Mr. Bush's defeat for Congress that year. "And I said the Lord works in mysterious ways."

Mr. Watt said Mr. Bush seemed surprised by some of the statistics he was given on how black Americans were lagging in income, employment and health insurance coverage.

Mr. Bush was joined at the meeting by Condoleezza Rice after her confirmation by the Senate as secretary of state. Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, said Ms. Rice, who is the first African-American woman to hold the post, was congratulated by many of the caucus members.

[cherry]

" Sadly, they are largely female. "

what exactly is that supposed to mean?

IMO, the more women respect themselves and become successful in school and in the job market, the less inclination to be producing out of wedlock children and hanging on to loser men.....

THAT has got to be not only a good thing, but a GREAT thing, for any race of women....

[scan58]

snuck that one in, eh?

[nopardons]

bttt

[nopardons]

Dr Rice was "a child of privilege"?

In what universe?

[nopardons]

You have a severe case of class envy and an abject lack of knowledge of what it was like to be a black child in the South,when Dr.Rice was a child.

Neither are you aware of her background.

You're on the wrong site,newbie;go off to DU...they actually love class warfare and MARXISM. We at FR don't.

[calex59]

You are obviously a communists, judging by your statements about the downtrodden working people and the "overpriviledge" Dr. Rice. I don't know what her family history is, but I do know one thing, I have friends who earned their PHDs and didn't have parents to pay their way. Even if she did have rich parents, how does that lessen her accomplishments? What do you propose she should have done, threw away the change to get an education simply because a guy/girl like you can't cut it so you are blaming your misfortune on someone who can? If you are flipping burgers then you should try to be retrained. You can go online and get an AA degree which will give you a start. Costs about 64 bucks a year to do that in CA, and is probably cheaper in other states. Don't whine and cry about the poor downtrodden. I was one of them and managed to do quite well thank you, without the help of the government or my parents. Try Reading some of Condi's life history, it is quite amazing. Apply yourself instead of whining and maybe you could be a pimple on her a** someday.

[international american]

BTTT