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Bush Holds News Conference [Proposes to turn social security into a poverty program]
The New York Times ^ | April 28, 2005 | DAVID STOUT

Posted on 04/28/2005 6:38:41 PM PDT by Brilliant

WASHINGTON, April 28 - President Bush said tonight that Social Security should be adjusted so that benefits for people with lower incomes would grow faster than for those who were more affluent.

Mr. Bush said the change would go a long way toward solving the retirement system's problems and would keep a solemn pledge to people who have worked hard for a lifetime but have not amassed great wealth: "You will not retire into poverty."

Speaking at a White House news conference on the eve of the symbolic 100-day mark of his second term, Mr. Bush again pushed for voluntary personal retirement accounts within Social Security for younger workers. And he said again that he was open to good ideas from either party, provided the suggestions, if carried out, would not "raise the payroll tax rate or harm the economy."

While ruling out raising the 6.2 percent payroll tax rate for Social Security, perhaps significantly he did not rule out raising the ceiling, now $90,000, on which earnings are taxed for Social Security.

"As we fix Social Security, some things won't change," Mr. Bush said, recognizing that for decades any talk of changing the system has been considered the political equivalent of Russian roulette. "Seniors and people with disabilities will get their checks. All Americans born before 1950 will receive the full benefits."

The president also called on the Senate to pass his energy program, the outlines of which have already been endorsed by the House, so that the United States can be energy-independent. Among his ideas, which he said involve obtaining more energy through "innovative and environmentally sensitive ways," is drilling in a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"My administration is doing everything we can to make gasoline more affordable," Mr. Bush said, alluding to a recent trend that polls show is annoying the American people and perhaps endangering him politically. "There will be no price-gouging at gas pumps in America."

The president also touched on several other hot-button issues. He declined to offer a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, but said they would begin to come home "as soon as possible," and he insisted that the United States and its allies were making progress there.

Mr. Bush said, too, that he stood by his embattled nominee for United Nations ambassador, John R. Bolton, and that Mr. Bolton's by now well known abrasiveness might stand him and the United States in good stead.

"John Bolton is a blunt guy," he said during the hourlong session with reporters. "John Bolton can get the job done at the United Nations."

Mr. Bush and his top aides have repeatedly said that the United Nations needs to adapt to the 21st century instead of being little more than an international debating society.

But Mr. Bush dwelled heavily on his Social Security proposals, emphasizing, in response to a question, that any Congressional action that addressed the system's solvency - but did not allow for private accounts - would be unacceptable to him.

He said these accounts would allow only for safe, conservative investments, like Treasury bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government, which has never defaulted. (The president's Democratic critics chided him recently for referring to the $1.7 trillion in Treasury securities that make up the Social Security trust fund, amassed by the current accumulating surplus, as little more than a pile of i.o.u.'s. These securities, too, are backed by the government's full faith and credit.)

Mr. Bush, in the fourth prime-time news conference of his presidency, said his two-month campaign to promote his ideas for Social Security had convinced him that the American people "understand that Social Security is heading for serious financial trouble." "Congresses have made promises they cannot keep for a younger generation," Mr. Bush said. By 2041, he asserted, "Social Security will be bankrupt."

Mr. Bush did not go into detail, in his opening remarks, on the inexorable trends that actuaries envision as baby-boomers move into retirement. Actuaries have forecast that the retirement system, which now takes in more than it pays out, will start to run a deficit in 2017.

From 2017 until 2041, the system could still pay full benefits by drawing on its store of Treasury securities in which the present incoming surplus is now invested. And starting in 2041 - the point at which Mr. Bush said bankruptcy would occur - the system would be able to pay benefits at only about 72 percent, unless changes are made in the meantime.

"Social Security is too important for politics as usual," Mr. Bush said, after months in which the White House and its Republican allies have argued bitterly with Democrats, who generally oppose the concept of individual retirement accounts within Social Security because they fear the change will undermine the system without fixing its admitted long-range problems.

As for opinion polls showing that many people are wary of his ideas for the retirement program, Mr. Bush said, as he has many times and in connection with many issues, that he does not worry about them. "You know," he said, "if a president tries to govern based upon polls, you're kind of like a dog chasing your tail."


TOPICS: Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bush; bush43; energy; gwb; meanstesting; newsconference; presidentbush; socialsecurity
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To: patriciaruth

Simple math: add the 2nd and 3rd items on that list.


161 posted on 04/29/2005 1:51:18 PM PDT by k2blader (Immorality bites.)
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To: ChefKeith
Anybody born after that is getting SCREWED worse that we are now!!!!!

Most all knew 20-30 years ago that, that the system was busted and now they talk about it, but wait and see if anything comes of that.

162 posted on 04/29/2005 3:11:39 PM PDT by SouthTexas
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To: Gipper08

I agree the president's plan for these private accounts ran by the government is idiotic. If they cared about liberty, it would be you can keep that 15% if you want.. and do whatever you want with it.. or opt to keep paying 15% more for a higher check at the end.


The best solution involves freezing the growth of the SS payments.. tying it to the cost of living, instead of the insane measure of tying it to wages like now. I would even go further, slowly reducing the payments relative to the cost of living by 1% every year.

And then over time, as the amount being payed out grew slower then the amount being put in with the payroll taxes.. Then starting to reduce those payroll taxes. Which then puts that money into the free economy, allowing people to do whatever they want with it. Which will help the economy to grow even that much faster.


163 posted on 04/29/2005 3:30:45 PM PDT by ran15
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To: Raycpa

Check out reply #75


164 posted on 04/29/2005 3:39:36 PM PDT by oldtimer
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To: Brilliant
Do you know who made the "promise" to which you refer?

When was it made?

Did the person making the promise have authority to make it?

Wasn't SS supposed to be a safety net?
165 posted on 04/29/2005 4:55:31 PM PDT by Wayland
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To: Wayland

For example

Hillary Clinton

http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/EOP/First_Lady/html/columns/hrc021799.html

Senator Patty Murray

http://murray.senate.gov/news.cfm?id=189431

President Bush

http://www.issues2000.org/George_W__Bush_Social_Security.htm

I got these off Google in just a few seconds. You can find thousands of similar statements by politicians. They are selling it to the voters as a promise. And they are running the government. And they've been doing it for 60 years. If they break their promise now, then someone is going to hang.


166 posted on 04/29/2005 5:10:57 PM PDT by Brilliant
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To: CSM

I thought a person could opt out of it. At least up n till a year or so ago I knew of a site that offered the forms to get out of it.

My wife doesnt pay into it and opted out of it. Matter of fact most at the place she works opted out of it. They put into a retirement account instead.


167 posted on 04/29/2005 6:35:17 PM PDT by crz
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To: k2blader

Dumping is not an option in the real world.


168 posted on 04/29/2005 7:15:33 PM PDT by patriciaruth (They are all Mike Spanns)
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To: patriciaruth
Yes, I admit it, I'm to the left of Atilla the Hun.

So is everyone else. But you are certainly as far to the left as all people who believe in socialism.

169 posted on 04/29/2005 7:37:29 PM PDT by Protagoras (Evolution is amazing... I wonder who invented it?)
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To: patriciaruth
Anyone who agrees with SS at all, in any way, is a socialist. That includes all freepers who believe in it.

Anyone who wants to means test SS not only is a socialist, they are imbeciles. It changes SS from a Ponzi scheme which redistributes wealth generationally, into one that redistributes it between income groups. Like communists, but just a matter of degree less.

You see, it makes you a little commie. And that is as far to the left as is possible on this forum.

170 posted on 04/29/2005 7:44:20 PM PDT by Protagoras (Evolution is amazing... I wonder who invented it?)
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To: Protagoras
Who's money is it anyway? A Government who takes money from the people. Just takes it; and then decides how much they will give, when they will give it back, or if they will give it back?
171 posted on 04/29/2005 8:12:31 PM PDT by Afronaut (America is for Americans, but not anymore)
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To: Protagoras; MJY1288

That's me...a cheerful little commie.

Thanks for enlightening me about my deepest held beliefs.


172 posted on 04/29/2005 11:25:42 PM PDT by patriciaruth (They are all Mike Spanns)
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To: Protagoras; patriciaruth

Lighten up slick, The Freeper you are trashing as a Commie, has most likely done more to support our troops than all the acidic rhetoric you can possibly produce with your limited mental capabilities. Everyone knows Social Security cannot support itself on a long term basis and as long as people like you consider it does, is wishful thinking at best, and most likely burring your head in the sand


173 posted on 04/29/2005 11:45:20 PM PDT by MJY1288 ( LIBERALISM IS FOR INVERTEBRATES)
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To: oldtimer

It is not possible to collect SS if you have not worked recently. You misread what was said.


174 posted on 04/30/2005 5:37:38 AM PDT by Raycpa
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To: ran15

Great points!!!


175 posted on 04/30/2005 9:40:13 AM PDT by Gipper08
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To: MJY1288

You can't read.


176 posted on 04/30/2005 7:06:00 PM PDT by Protagoras (Evolution is amazing... I wonder who invented it?)
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To: Brilliant

"Means Testing" means GW's plan is D.O.A. BUMP!!


177 posted on 04/30/2005 10:56:50 PM PDT by Drago
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To: patriciaruth

What are you talking about? I'm on your side of this issue.


178 posted on 04/30/2005 11:37:41 PM PDT by Chunga
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