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."
What is your solution ?
I was in favor of the private accounts. My taxes go into a private account for me. What's wrong with that?
The answer is clear, with an added benefit of pitting the Dims, who have NO IDEAS anyway, against the POOR if they come out against this proposal.
This move by the POTUS is in fact .............. Brilliant!
I agree, this would turn Social Security into just another wealth transfer program.
I am very disappointed that he is going this way.
He better make those tax cuts permanent, or he's failed.
I don't like the proposal, but it does show how frustrated he is becoming with the lack of action on social security reform.
Unfortunately, it looks like Bush may be just like any other second-termer and be unable to get much of anything significant accomplished.
I hope I am wrong, but it doesn't look good yet.
how? how do you "end it"? stop sending checks to current retirees? tell people who are just a few years away from retirement - sorry, you lose everything you've put in.
there is no way to "end it". you put the private accounts out there and give young people, the new entrants to the ponzi scheme, a way to transition out.
look, I am skeptical about this too - but let's see what happens, if it starts going the wrong way, we'll know.
I'm sure that under his plan we'll get both. And if you're NOT rich, you will get reduced benefits if you once WERE rich, according to someone's standards.
the answer depends, how old are you?
You wouldn't like any suggestion the President made no matter what it was.
I'm 46, but my age should make no difference. Social security is going to be broke before I retire. The only way to protect my benefits is to put them into a private account where Washington can't touch them.
Jackass.
Way too stupid.
I have done a comlete 180 on partial privatization--from a strong supporter--to one now completely opposed to any changes!
The President should cut his losses and drop the whole idea! It doesn't have a chance of passage if strong supporters of the President like me--have now thrown in the towel!
My bet is the rich (making over 45k a year) will get both reduced benefits and higher taxes.
I don't think that there is yet a final form set in stone, but my guess would be that they will be similar to 403b plans (which are fairly similar to 401k plans.) I googled for some web info about 403b plans and these two seemed reasonably informative: 403bwise and a similar page at the Motley Fool.
It has been suggested we have a weekly NATIONAL lottery, where we would have a chance to win money...lots of money. Sort of like the States who now participate in the powerball. No one will be forced to "buy a ticket"..:~)
With all the States participating, they claim the money would be more than adequate to save Social Security.
Maybe it IS this simple?
sw
Thanks.
Social Security has also been turned into a welfare system.
Thanks,of course, to the rats who had control for forty years.
"They got it all from their rich Mommies and Daddies."
...and by just moving money around, and by usury--which was once illegal in America.
Entrepreneurs who work hard to EARN money get hit with massive income tax. In a perfect world, I'd say no unearned wealth. Well, in a perfect world, I'd like to see the denisons of Wall Street go out and split wood or bale hay at least an hour a day, too. However, it's not a perfect world.
I watched most of it, and that's how I understood what he was saying. I'm glad you posted this, because I thought I was hearing things.
I'll see what everyone else is saying about this.
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