Fw: Bush's State of the Union: Social Security

----- Original Message -----
From: "FactCheck.org"
To:
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 1:58 AM
Subject: Bush's State of the Union: Social Security


Bush's State of the Union: Social Security "Bankruptcy?"

Summary

In his State of the Union Address, President Bush said again that the Social
Security system is headed for "bankruptcy," a term that could give the wrong
idea. Actually, even if it goes "bankrupt" a few decades from now, the
system would still be able to pay about three-quarters of the benefits now
promised.

Bush also made his proposed private Social Security accounts sound like a
sure thing, which they are not. He said they "will" grow fast enough to
provide a better return than the present system. History suggests that will
be so, but nobody can predict what stock and bond markets will do in the
future.

Bush left out any mention of what workers would have to give up to get those
private acounts -- a proportional reduction or offset in guaranteed Social
Security retirement benefits. He also glossed over the fact that money in
private accounts would be "owned" by workers only in a very limited sense --
under strict conditions which the President referred to as "guidelines."
Many retirees, and possibly the vast majority, wouldn't be able to touch
their Social Security nest egg directly, even after retirement, because the
government would take some or all of it back and convert it to a stream of
payments guaranteed for life.

Click the link below for the full article:

http://www.factcheck.org/article305m.html


If the link does not work, copy and paste this link into your browser and
hit "ENTER":

http://www.factcheck.org/article305m.html



If you wish to un-subscribe, please copy and paste the following link into
your browser and hit "RETURN":
http://www.factcheck.org/list/maillist/unsubscribe.php?mail=miriam@panix.com&id=22