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Friday, April 29, 2005
Bush Talks to the Public About Social Security
In President Bush's news conference last night on energy and Social Security reform, he stated, "I know some Americans have reservations about investing in the stock market, so I propose that one investment option consist entirely of treasury bonds, which are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government." (the entire transcript can be read here.
This statement is interesting given the fact that on his "60 day, 60 city tour" Bush spent much of his time discussing how the treasury bonds in the trust fund are little more than IOUs which the American people expect will be paid back by the government someday.
He has been discrediting the trust fund as nothing more than IOUs, just last week he said, "You see, a lot of people in America think there's a trust, in this sense -- that we take your money through payroll taxes and then we hold it for you, and then when you retire, we give it back to you. But that's not the way it works. There is no "trust fund," just IOUs that I saw firsthand, that future generations will pay -- will pay for either in higher taxes, or reduced benefits, or cuts to other critical government programs." He has been criss-crossing the country saying this, yet last night said the trust fund has the full faith and credit of the United States Government.
Bush spent much of his press conference discussing the need for responsible reforms to Social Security; reforms that he says won't cut benefits for people and that will keep retirees receiving benefits out of poverty. Yet in the same breath he says he believes the best way to do this is to have workers divert a percentage of their payroll taxes into a personal account. Hundreds of economists, policy analysts, and Social Security experts have come out over the last few months and said that personal accounts will add a level of risk to the benefits being paid to recipients. Bush is still trying to market a bad plan to the American people, yet disguising it as one that is both necessary and progressive. Private accounts are neither necessary nor progressive, and luckily, polls have shown that more and more Americans are believing this to be true.
Posted by Becky Lewis
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