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To: Y2k_fan who wrote (29590)	12/10/1998 11:24:00 PM
From: JBL	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

CLINTON GOES TO THE BEZOS SCHOOL OF TIMING. (Is this blackmail on a massive scale or what ? : Boot me out of office and the stock market will crash and social security will be permanently impaired...) Clinton Backs Social Security Investment Option By Donna Smith WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton favors strengthening the Social Security program's finances through more profitable investments such as corporate stocks and bonds, but how to do that is up in the air, a White House official said Wednesday. White House economic adviser Gene Sperling said Clinton told members of Congress during the second of a two-day conference on overhauling the nation's retirement system that policymakers needed to be clear about the risks associated with those kinds of investments. ''The president did say today and has said in meetings with (the) economic and Social Security team that he believes we should be looking for ways to get higher returns into Social Security,'' Sperling said. ''The mechanism for doing that obviously remains a controversial issue,'' he added. ''But I do believe there is a growing consensus, which the president is a part of, that we do need the type of investment options that would bring higher returns to Social Security.'' Clinton has said he would like to forge a bipartisan plan next year to bolster the Social Security system and help it cope with the retirement of the aging baby boom generation. Members of Congress attending the Wednesday session at the White House said they saw a window of opportunity of six to eight months next year for action before the politics of the 2000 presidential elections complicate matters. But Social Security reform next year could be impossible if the House of Representatives votes for the four articles of impeachment against Clinton drawn up by House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. The Senate could be tied up for months next year in an impeachment trial, making it extremely difficult if not impossible for that body to deal with other issues, lawmakers said after the White House Social Security meeting. Lawmakers disagree sharply over whether the government should invest Social Security money in stocks and bonds or set up individual accounts for workers so they can decide their own investments. Wall Street and business groups support individual accounts and a number of Republicans object to giving the government power to invest the money in stocks and bonds. They argue that this would give the government too much power in corporate board rooms. But critics of individual accounts, including labor unions, say diverting Social Security taxes to private accounts would cut benefits and unwisely expose people to a high degree of risk. House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt said he could support a plan that would allow companies and workers to establish voluntary, supplemental individual accounts to which they would contribute money on top of their Social Security taxes. ''I don't rule out, although I have grave concerns about individuals somehow investing part of their part of the Social Security trust fund in stocks and bonds,'' Gephardt told reporters following the closed-door meeting with the president. Currently the Social Security system can invest only in U.S. government debt, which has little risk but provides lower rates of return than other types of investments. Investments in stocks and bonds on average yield higher returns but are riskier and more susceptible to swings in the economy. The Social Security system faces increasing financial strains when the baby boom generation, born between 1946 and 1964, begins to retire in about 15 to 20 years. Currently enough taxes are being collected to finance beneficiaries and build a trust fund. But the trust fund is expected to be exhausted by 2032.