President Discusses Issues With Black Leaders

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 - President Bush told a meeting of African-American religious and community leaders on Tuesday that he remained committed to a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and that fighting H.I.V. and AIDS in Africa remained a priority, a participant in the meeting said afterward.

Mr. Bush also encouraged the leaders to support his plan to add personal investment accounts to Social Security, which White House officials say could benefit blacks because they have a shorter average life span than whites and end up putting more money into the retirement system than they take out.

African-American men "have had a shorter life span than other sectors of America," Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, told reporters. "And this will enable them to build a nest egg of their own and be able to pass that nest egg on to their survivors."
...
Mr. Rivers, a Democrat and a Bush supporter, was one of about 20 leaders at the meeting.
The White House said the other participants were Bush supporters of both parties. They included Robert L. Woodson Sr., the founder of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, based in Washington, and Deborah Wright, the chief executive of Carver Federal Savings Bank in New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/26/national/26bush.html?oref=login