White House Restates Support for Individual Accounts
December 19, 2001
The media continues to say that the push for Social Security reform is dead,
but the White House does not appear to be listening. For the third time in the
past two weeks, White House spokesman Ari
Fleisher returned to the issue, saying
The President has said on that that he would
very much like to see a debate this year on Social Security. The President thinks it serves the nation well
for politicians in both parties to talk this year about
personal accounts and what contribution they can
make to Social Security.
The exact timing of when Congress may be able
to move Social Security legislation is clearly up in the
air. There are many in Congress who do not think it
can happen before the election. Obviously, with the
Senate not yet even taking action on energy or on the
stimulus, on trade promotion authority, on faith-based
legislation, the armies of compassion initiative --
there are many things the Senate has yet to do. This
will be one more item to put on the Senate's plate.
Later, Fleisher restated the president’s reasons for
supporting reform.
The President welcomes the debate on
Social Security. The President believes very
strongly in the fact that Social Security must be
there for our current seniors with no changes
whatsoever. For people who are nearing
retirement, the Social Security system should
not be changed whatsoever. It works very well
for people who are retired and who are nearing
retirement and they've made commitments and
planes based on the existing system, which will
still be solvent for their lifetime. No changes
should be made.
But for younger workers, they're in a
totally different boat. They are paying a lifetime
of high taxes for a system that is unlikely to be
there when they retire. And the President thinks
that the sooner the politicians are able to face
up to it and deal with the seriousness of Social
Security's impending bankruptcy, the better.
As the country debates Social Security reform over the coming
year, advocates of individual accounts expect the president to play a
key role.
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