Pinellas resident makes forum cut
By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER, Times Staff Writer
Published February 5, 2005
TAMPA - It's not every day that the White House calls Jim Browne to ask him what he thinks about key domestic issues.
So the 27-year-old Pinellas County tax assistant was just a little surprised when he got a call from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. on Thursday morning. On his cell phone.
"I don't know how they had that number, but they called me," Browne said.
Two women were on the other end.
"I didn't get their names," he said. "I heard White House and everything else kind of glazed over."
They wanted to know what the registered Republican thought of President Bush's State of the Union address from the previous night. Then they asked him what he thought about Social Security. Four probing phone calls later, Browne was invited to attend Bush's town hall meeting at the Tampa Convention Center on Friday afternoon.
Browne shared the stage with three other handpicked Floridians during a "discussion" with Bush about the future of Social Security before an invitation-only crowd, many of them employees of Raymond James. Tampa was the fifth and last stop on a two-day tour in which Bush held town hall meetings with screened audiences to promote an overhaul of the federal program.
Like the others who took the stage Friday, Browne was full of compliments.
"I'd like to say how much I appreciate you bringing up the subject of the future of Social Security," Browne told the president. "For many of my generation, we don't anticipate the system being there for us as it stands."
Bush stopped Browne. He looked at the audience.
"Hear what he said?" he said. "First of all, when I was 27 years old, I don't remember having a discussion with anybody about whether or not Social Security would be there. Any other baby boomers here remember talking about Social Security and its viability when we were 27? No. The dynamic has changed."
Bush and his administration say Social Security is veering toward a financial crisis. It needs to be phased out and replaced with private accounts managed by Wall Street. Browne and the others who spoke Friday reinforced that view.
"The thing I like about the proposed reforms to Social Security is that, just like I do on the 401(k), I can invest in the market where I get a better return, plus I can keep control of my finances just like I like it," said Carlos Huertas, a 46-year-old support engineer for PerkinElmer technology firm who lives in Riverview.
There were people who protested, but they weren't invited inside. More than 30 pickets were outside the auditorium carrying signs saying "Save Terri."
They were objecting to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision not to take up the Florida Supreme Court's ruling that it was unconstitutional for the state to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case.
About 100 people who opposed Bush's effort to privatize Social Security were sent seven blocks away to Curtis Hixon Park by police to express their views.
"He's messing with this country's best federal program," said Grant Wilson, a 63-year-old Lutz homeowner. "There's no crisis. It should be left alone."
The president's motorcade did not pass these protesters.
As Browne got phone calls from friends and family members who saw him on TV with the president, he said he was happy to be part of the program.
"I think the whole idea of today was to have a bipartisan discussion," Browne said. "The president is open to ideas. That's the message I heard today."
Times researcher Caryn Baird and staff writer Anita Kumar contributed to this report. Michael Van Sickler can be reached at 813 269-5312 or
mvansickler@sptimes.com http://www.sptimes.com/2005/02/05/Tampabay/Pinellas_resident_mak.shtml