Leading Democratic senators came to Pace University Friday to kick off their national counter-offensive against President Bush’s plans to change Social Security. At right, Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), who visited the Downtown school in 2003 to debate his opponents in the presidential primary, laughed with Cara Dorso, 21, who also spoke of her deceased father’s experiences with the program. The senators said Bush’s plan to set up personal accounts would take trillions of dollars out of the system and it ignores more pressing problems such as health care costs. White House officials have acknowledged the accounts will not solve the system’s long-term solvency problems and wish to negotiate solutions. Other senators who attended were Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY), below right; Chuck Schumer (NY), bottom left with Senate minority leader Harry Reid (NV), as well as Democratic whip Dick Durbin (IL) and Byron Dorgan (ND).
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