Would Bush's Social Security Plan Hurt Blacks?

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," Feb. 21, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.

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ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: During a weekend news conference, the NAACP attempted to reach out to the White House, asking to meet with the president to talk about his plans for Social Security. The NAACP says they fear the new plan would disproportionately hurt black Americans.

Joining us now from Atlanta is the former deputy director of the Atlanta chapter of NAACP (search), Julian Bond's son, political activist Michael Bond.

Michael, good to have you with us.

MICHAEL BOND, POLITICAL ACTIVIST: Good to be here.

COLMES: What response has the White House given about getting together to talk about this?

BOND: Well, I don't think the White House has responded to their request as yet. But I do believe that it would be in the national interest of the president and of this country to have the oldest civil rights organization in this country sit down with its president to talk about the issues that affect the population.

COLMES: Let's get into this issue. What I find most remarkable is when the president says because blacks die earlier than whites they will not have to wait until retirement to receive benefits, capitalizing on the health problems African-Americans have in our society, lack of insurance, for example, to sell the Social Security plan. How cynical?

BOND: It's very cynical. And that's like saying that if you pray hard enough and get to heaven before me, then you're going to be with our Heavenly Father, so your reward is going to be greater.

I mean, it's very cynical and it's upset not just the leadership of the African-American community but everyone that I've spoken to on the street, in the community and at church, they're all upset about it. It's very — it's a very insensitive statement.

COLMES: They also say that once you start receiving, you know, you can pass it on to your heirs but not once you start receiving benefits. So African-Americans, who may often start receiving those benefits and then die earlier than whites, will not have a chance to pass it on to their heirs?

BOND: No, they won't. And I think that's part of the problem with this proposal. The president's position on Social Security, not only is insensitive to minorities, but according to the report released by the CBO [Congressional Budget Office], is grossly inadequate.

They've come out with a different set of findings that says Social Security isn't in the fix, that the Social Security trustees have said that it's in.

COLMES: And here's something else. William Spriggs of the Economic Policy Institute (search) says blacks contribute 8.9 percent of Social Security's finances but get 8.6 percent of its benefits. Another way that it's unfair.

We're not clear exactly how benefits will be lost under the new plan.

BOND: Well, I think what will happen is that you're asking people to take a gamble on what is a guarantee or has been a guarantee in this country for their security during their golden years.

You know, we shouldn't allow the privatization of Social Security, and that's all this is. This is trading the security of those of us who live on Main Street for those who make their living on Wall Street. I think that it is a heinous proposal.

HANNITY: Michael, explain to our audience why the president of the United States should met with your father after your father has repeatedly called him a liar, compared him to the Taliban, the NAACP ad that ran in 2000, that showed the chains in the dragging death of James Byrd (search). And "it's like my father was killed all over again," even though George Bush supported the death penalty for those people who committed that horrific crime.

Why should — why should George Bush meet with your father, considering how horribly he has treated him? Why?

BOND: This isn't about my father. This is about the president of the United States meeting with the oldest civil rights organization in the United States.

HANNITY: But this is your father that's leading this — wait a minute.

BOND: This is about the — this is about...

HANNITY: You can't take the personalities out of it, because your father has said those things about George Bush.

BOND: ... the president of the United States responding to an organization that represents hundreds of thousands of American citizens, citizens who believe in justice, who believe in freedom and who are, and the organization that is, nonpartisan.

HANNITY: Michael...

BOND: There have been other presidents that have met with the NAACP over a period of years. Other presidents that have been more severely criticized by the NAACP, yet they still have the gumption to sit down across the table and discuss those differences.

HANNITY: Michael — Michael, what year father has said about him, frankly, is unconscionable. It's been unfair. And I don't see any reason why the president should sit down with your father until your father apologizes to the president. Don't you think your father owes him an apology?

BOND: No, I think my father was expressing his views as an American citizen, under which this country was actually...

HANNITY: He was speaking as the head of the NAACP.

BOND: ... founded. If you go back to the revolutionary days of the United States, you talk about "don't tread on me." We have the freedom of speech, the freedom to express our opinions.

Also, you need to be reminded that my father was also equally critical of the Democratic Party in all of his speeches...

HANNITY: Never. Give me any comparison — give me any comparison with what he said similar about Bill Clinton. Michael, give me a comparison.

BOND: Of course he did. He made many, many comparisons — Democratic Party in his speeches. His speeches are public.

HANNITY: Michael, give me one example.

BOND: FOX News has copies of his speeches are on videocassette. If you listen to his speeches...

HANNITY: Wrong.

BOND: ... he's meted out criticism equally. And that's what the NAACP is about. We're not about personality.

HANNITY: Let me ask you about — but it is about personality. Yes, you know what? I don't blame the president for not sitting down with your father because of what your father has said about this president and the vicious attacks he's made against him. And I don't think it's productive.

But the life expectancy for white males over African-American males in this country is seven years. For women it's five years. Don't you think that we've got to reform Social Security where everybody has their individual accounts while we're working towards raising the life expectancy of everybody?

BOND: Well, I think raising the life — life expectancy of African- Americans in this country is a — and other minorities — is more important than the Social Security argument.

Now, the president ought to focus on things that are going to help African-Americans and other minorities to live longer.

HANNITY: Yes.

COLMES: Michael...

BOND: Fixing health-care and this budget that he introduced, we're going to tax child — tax childcare and tax all these different social programs that hit the lower class and the middle Americans hard.

COLMES: Michael, we just — we're out of time.

BOND: He's got to change that.

COLMES: We thank you very much for being with us.

BOND: Thank you for having me.

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