US President George W. Bush on Friday called on his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, to help defend his embattled plan to partly privatise the government-run retirement programme.
During a speech here on the issue, Bush brought his 79-year-old mother onstage, joking: "I promised not to tell you her age, but she is eligible for Social Security."
"I'm here because where else can I see my two oldest boys?" Barbara Bush said in a reference to the president and Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
"I am here because your father and I have 17 grand-children ... all born after 1960, and we want to know if someone can do something about it (Social Security)," she said.
Bush has been struggling to rally support for his plan to overhaul the government-run retirement program, which he has made a chief goal of the second four-year term he won in November.
Even members of his own Republican party in the US Congress, where they enjoy a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, have expressed skepticism about his proposal to let people divert some of their Social Security taxes into private accounts.