WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- The Democratic Party Tuesday called on the president to clarify whether his administration would support race- and gender-based policies for Social Security.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said suggestions by House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Fla., to adjust Social Security benefits according to race or gender was "tampering with the foundation that Social Security has had for 50 years."
In a speech earlier last week and in a television interview Sunday, Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., had mentioned the possibility of adjusting Social Security benefits according to a person's race or gender as one of many options to reform the system.
McAuliffe said Thomas's comments were an example of the Bush administration raising a trial balloon to test out reform strategies, adding they were "scaring the life out of people across the country."
McAuliffe dismissed as "baloney" charges that he was taking Thomas's comments out of context. "He said it, and he did it, I believe, at the insistence of the White House," he said.
