re: However, my point was that 51% of the people out there want something done about SS. Our government's function is to act in accordance with the will of the people.
Then I guess it DOA (see the bold below):
Bush urges quick action on Social Security, economic issues
By Marilyn Geewax
Cox News Service
Monday, December 20, 2004
WASHINGTON — President Bush sought Americans' support Thursday for quick action on an economic agenda that would bring far-reaching changes to their lives.
"Now is the time to confront Social Security," Bush said on the closing day of a two-day economic conference called to promote his economic plans for 2005.
Besides altering the nation's largest social program, Bush urged Congress to simplify the tax code, rein in government spending, hold down lawsuits and roll back regulations.
He also wants Congress to turn the temporary tax cuts he won in his first term into enduring legacies. "All the tax relief we passed must be made permanent," he said.
Bush said he is especially eager to tackle problems facing Social Security. The huge federal retirement and disability program is projected to run out of money to pay benefits by 2042.
"I'm looking forward to working with members of both chambers (of Congress) and both parties to confront this issue today, before it becomes more acute," Bush said.
Bush said Congress can work out the legislative details for Social Security, but must adhere to his guiding principles for reform:
— Guarantee that for current retirees, "nothing will change" in terms of monthly benefits.
— Ensure that payroll taxes will not increase.
— Allow younger workers to open personal savings accounts that could be funded with a portion of their Social Security taxes.
"I will continue to articulate principles that I think are important and reach out to members of both parties to fashion a plan that solves the problem," he said at the conference, which was held in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center near the White House.
The president has a sales job to do in convincing Americans to back his plan. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Thursday shows that by a margin of 50 percent to 38 percent, people are inclined to believe it's "a bad idea" to let workers invest Social Security taxes in the stock market.
The idea was denounced Thursday at a news conference held by leaders of several labor, women's, civil rights and retirees organizations.
Labor leader John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, said Bush's proposal "will take trillions of dollars out of the Social Security trust funds, further balloon our nation's deficit and jeopardize the retirement security of working families."
Sweeney called the economic summit "just another public relations gimmick to promote the president's damaging proposal to privatize Social Security."
Sweeney and others suggested that Social Security could be made solvent by raising the cap on earnings subject to the payroll tax, currently $87,500, and by earmarking federal estate and gift taxes collected after 2009 for the Social Security trust fund.
Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, noted that many women, who generally earn less than men, would be unable to save enough in private investment accounts to offset the high cost of administering them.
But Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist for Charles Schwab and Co. and a participant in the White House conference, said administration costs would be low.
"The fees are structured to be so minimal that in fact, even the studies have shown that under any set of proposals, Wall Street doesn't make any money on this for another seven or eight years," she said.
Bush also said he is not worried that Americans would make poor savings choices because any new system would have guidelines to steer investors.
"You can't take it to the race track and hope to really increase the returns," he said. "It's not there for the lottery."
He suggested the accounts could be patterned after the investment plan available to federal workers — the Thrift Savings Plan, a tax-deferred retirement investment plan similar to a 401(k).
Another conference participant, Richard Parsons, chairman and CEO of Time Warner Inc., said that even if reform proposals have some drawbacks, Congress must be willing to act because Social Security is "on a train wreck course" if nothing changes.
"You can't fix this problem with no pain, without making some sacrifices, but the time to start making those sacrifices is now," he said.
Bush did not suggest how Congress should handle any funding shortfall that would result from diverting payroll taxes away from Social Security. Some experts say the partial privatization of Social Security could create a funding gap of $1 trillion or more.
But Bush said he would reduce the federal budget deficit, estimated at $413 billion this year, by cracking down on government spending.
"If the deficit is an issue — which it is — therefore it's going to require some tough choices on the spending side," Bush said.
During Bush's first term, administration officials tended to downplay the significance of the rising deficit, saying its size was manageable. Many fiscal conservatives within the Republican Party have been making it clear recently they want deficit reduction to be a higher priority.
Throughout the conference, attended by hundreds of supportive business leaders, lobbyists and economists, Bush reiterated his commitment to ending "frivolous" lawsuits that he says hurts small businesses and reform medical liability.
He said he would not shrink from political battles to make big changes.
"Why think little when it comes to making sure America is still the center of excellence in the world?" Bush asked. "Great economies do not get weak all at once. They're kind of eaten away, you know, year by year, by challenges that people just refuse to meet. Slowly but surely, an economy, a great economy, can be eroded to the point of mediocrity."
Larry Lipman of the Pam Beach Post contributed to this article.
On the Web:
White House: www.whitehouse.gov
Marilyn Geewax's e-mail address is marilyng(at)coxnews.com |
