On the morning of March 30, Treasury Secretary John Snow engaged in a cozy, intimate meeting with a small number of Bozeman residents. The subject was Social Security. The invitees to the closed-door-by-invitation-only event were local businessmen, bankers and stock brokers, the sort of people who will make trillions in fees from privatization. The people who had reason to worry about the government fiddling with their retirement, as well as those already in the system, stood outside the Holiday Inn protesting in the cold.

The meeting was hosted by David Smith, president of the chamber of commerce, who defended his decision to the local daily newspaper by saying "we thought that the space was going to limit us. For security and capacity reasons we need to know who's going to be in the room." I wonder if Smith thought the Gallatin Valley anarchists would show up to throw cow patties at Snow. If they had, the guys in the dark suits and glasses most certainly would have been able to control all those radical cowboys. The secrecy involved with this meeting was out-of-place in Montana, where the governor's number is listed in the phone book.

Many, but not all, of the approximately sixty people who stood along the sidewalk, holding their signs up as commuters streamed into town, were members of the Gallatin Valley Democrats. In preparation for the demonstration, messages had been painted with multicolored poster paints borrowed from the easel of one member's young child. A last-minute flurry of e-mails brought others who had created their own. "Keep your hands off our Social Security," said one. It featured a handprint made after a protester painted the inside of her hand and smooshed it on the poster board. One sign was a simulation of a Social Security card. Another was a nod to one of a set of Norman Rockwell's famous 1943 paintings that represent the Four Freedoms. The sign said "Freedom from Want." There was the mandatory "Honk If You Want to Save Social Security," and we got lots of honks and thumbs up in this purple town. There were even a couple of off-topic messages, like the impeachment suggestion carried by two college students. Apparently, Snow was baffled by the opposition of the protesters--probably because Montana is a red state, and one where the Bush surrogate expected a warmer welcome.

There are a lot of other issues tied to this one. More than half of all new jobs are being filled by people over fifty-five. Economic policy and lack of protection of American jobs now leave many out in the cold for a decade or more. They are taking whatever jobs are available and are stretched thin paying for catastrophic health insurance, just so they won't lose their homes and everything they have worked for due to an illness. Many of these folks are former professionals who are joining working men and women in huge numbers. Most won't retire, even when they are collecting Social Security. They count every penny and recoil with horror as the government wastes (and loses) billions on projects that benefit the few and not the many. Meanwhile, Americans pay twice as much for healthcare as people in other wealthy countries, while the administration threatens pharmacists in Canada and group buying plans that could reduce the cost of necessary drugs.

The Bush administration is relying on scare tactics to push its agenda. It refuses to consider a number of options that, together, will secure Social Security for many generations to come. This administration has so often used the bait-and-switch approach to gain support for its policies that we should be very wary. Once they get their hands on our Social Security, they can do all kinds of mischief that could leave future generations with a tiny check and an empty plate. In order to accomplish these goals, Bush sends out his minions to push his agenda in carefully controlled environments, while the rest of us stand out in the snow--and continues to prove that there is no heart in his heartland.

Sheila Velazquez (velazque@ix.netcom.com) writes in Bozeman, MT

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