Social Security As President Bush made a stop across the river in New Jersey to tout his controversial plan to privatize Social Security, Senate democrats, including Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer and John Kerry, made their case Downtown on March 4 that the real threat to the social program was that it was in danger of being dismantled. "Without Social Security, more than 900,000 New Yorker would be thrown into poverty," said Clinton, who moderated the forum at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University. "Social Security is more than a retirement policy, it is social insurance against poverty." The forum was the first of four planned by democrats in cities across the nation to counter the intense push from the White House on the president's plan. Bush was to spend the next 60 days on the road touting his plan which calls in part for allowing younger Americans to divert up to 4 percent of their income into personal accounts in exchange for a reduction in their guaranteed benefit. Bush has said there would be no change for workers age 55 and older. "You never heard of this administration telling you one thing then doing another, did you?" Kerry said to laughs from the partisan and standing-room-only crowd. "Social Security is not bankrupt," he said, noting it was a common claim from the administration. He and other senators also said the program, left as is, could remain paying out 100 percent of benefits for the next 50 years. Future generations could face 30 to 50 percent cuts in benefits under the president's plan, said Sen. Dick Durbin. "I would have to go back to work," said Vickie Owens, a retired nurses aid who was seated on stage with the senators and had been invited to highlight her need for Social Security. "The cost of living continues to go up, rent continues to go up, the cost of public transportation continues to go up." "Before Social Security, the 'Golden Year' were years that people dreaded," said Schumer. Schumer called Social Security the "most successful government program of the 20th Century" which, he said, has made it a target of "right-wing ideologues in the administration that hate the government." He said the administration's real designs on the program are to end it, not fix it. "Those who have decided to take Social Security apart are those who will never need it," said Sen. Byron Dorgan. Clinton said the program faces long-term challenges, but solutions should not include borrowing money, as the president's plan calls for, to make up for future shortfalls. "I don't think it is right to saddle the students here at Pace with almost $5 trillion in debt," she said. Other stops on the democrats tour were Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Las Vegas. "They are really preaching to the converted here," said Juanita Doares, a retired librarian who came down from the Upper West Side for the event. "They needing to be working to get the message out in other places."