UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Before an audience of future farmers, President Bush yesterday tried to cultivate support for Social Security proposals still languishing on the stony ground of Congress.

Charles Dharapak, Associated Press President Bush shakes hands with high school students after his speech yesterday about Social Security reform at the Pennsylvania FFA Convention at Penn State. Click photo for larger image.

"Why don't we get rid of all the partisan bickering in Washington and come together for the generation coming up," Bush said, winning the loudest applause of his 35-minute speech to the Pennsylvania FFA, the group formerly known as Future Farmers of America.

The Flag Day event, according to a White House count, was Bush's 36th appearance promoting his Social Security proposal since he described it in his State of the Union address.

As he has in all of those appearances, the president repeated his call for private or personal accounts to replace part of future benefits. In an effort to germinate momentum for change, he placed particular emphasis on the concept of changing the rate of growth of future benefits, using a concept known as progressive indexation.

Under that plan, the growth of benefits for lower-income recipients would be tied to the growth of average wages, just as under the current system. Benefits for those with higher incomes, however, would be tied to the rate of inflation in prices, which, historically, has climbed more slowly than wages.

"I've adopted the idea put out by a Democrat named Robert Pozen," Bush said, referring to a former member of his Commission to Strengthen Social Security. "I think Mr. Pozen has got a good idea, and here's what it says:

"It says that the Social Security checks for the highest 1 percent of Americans will remain the same in today's dollars as the checks received by beneficiaries today. ... The top 1 percent of earners would have their benefits go up at the cost of living; the lower-income Americans would have their benefits go up with wages, and it would be scaled in between. And that's important, because, you see, if Congress were just to adapt that part of the proposal, it would solve, by far, the biggest problem we face in funding Social Security for the out years."

Pozen, a Boston investment manager who served on the president's advisory panel in 2001 and 2002, has estimated that the progressive indexing approach would bridge 70 percent of the long-term solvency gap facing the system. The approach would not, however, produce the money needed to fund the transition to private accounts, a related but separate issue.

An upbeat Bush appeared undaunted by the discouraging poll numbers that continue to greet his calls for an overhaul of the retirement system.

According to an Associated Press survey released last week, only 37 percent of Americans support Bush's handling of Social Security, while 59 percent disapprove. That resistance hasn't changed in recent months despite the president's campaign-style barnstorming.

The administration has pointed to other poll numbers that show some movement on the issue, with the proportion of Americans who see Social Security as a crisis increasing, and a majority of younger Americans favoring private accounts. None of that, however, has translated into movement on Capitol Hill, where solid Democratic opposition and tepid GOP support has been a recipe for inaction.

Traveling with Bush yesterday was U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., who has for years promoted the broad concept of Social Security overhaul accompanied by private or personal accounts. His embrace of the Social Security issue nearly cost him his first Senate election against former Sen. Harris Wofford in 1994, and his association with the president's proposal is sure to be an issue in his re-election campaign next year.

In a brief interview before the president's appearance, Santorum couldn't muster much optimism for the prospects for congressional action on Social Security.

"We're going to continue to press [but] it's very unfortunate that so far the other side has treated this as all about politics."

Asked whether the Senate Finance Committee would produce a Social Security measure in the near future, Santorum, a member of the panel, said, "We're going to try by the August recess, but it's very hard."

Bush's proselytizing for changes in the retirement system has been met by an equally ardent campaign of opposition by interest groups, including AARP and the AFL-CIO.

Outside the Eisenhower Auditorium on Penn State's campus, scores of demonstrators chanted anti-Bush slogans and held aloft signs attacking the president on Social Security and the war in Iraq.

Gov. Ed Rendell, who spoke to the FFA delegates before Bush arrived, stayed to listen to his speech, taking the occasion to lobby Bush afterward on issues including clean coal technology. Commenting on the presidential message, Rendell said that Bush's priorities were askew in focusing on Social Security when health care was a more urgent crisis.

"The wolf is at the door today on that issue, and you see it in the states, you see it in General Motors, you see it all across the country," Rendell said.

Asked if members of his own party in Washington were doing enough to focus on that issue, the governor said, "No one in Congress is."

Rendell said that Bush's call for private accounts was misguided and would dangerously increase the deficit, but he voiced cautious approval for the concept of progressive indexing.

"That's an idea that Democrats should take a good, hard and honest look at," he said.

Bush flew to the mid-state event after helping Santorum bolster his defenses for his re-election campaign next year, which is expected to be one of the highest-profile and most competitive races in the country.

Santorum is expected to face Democrat Bob Casey Jr., the current state treasurer. Chuck Pennacchio, a Philadelphia college professor, also is seeking the Democratic nomination.

Describing the lunchtime reception at a private home in Montgomery County, Santorum said, "It was jammed. We raised in excess of a million and a half, which was well over our target."

Santorum planned to collect more campaign funds tomorrow night at a Harrisburg reception with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C.