Bush's Economic agenda

Bush Isn't Ready to Reveal Soc. Sec. Fix

By TERENCE HUNT
AP White House Correspondent





WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush signaled Thursday he is not ready yet to reveal how he would fix Social Security's looming insolvency, saying he has to first persuade people there is a problem.

"I got a lot more time to tell people that there is a problem," Bush said in a speech to newspaper editors.

The president also exhorted Congress to "get off the dime" and pass a comprehensive energy plan.

Bush spoke to the American Society of Newspaper Editors after a Republican lawmaker called him to disclose precisely how he would fix the retirement program's inevitable insolvency problem.



Bush said that some members of Congress would rather not tackle Social Security because it is a politically sensitive subject. He said the political consequences would be worse if lawmakers failed to address the problem.
Continued:

The Democratic Dividend
The stock market prefers Democratic presidents to Republicans. Why?

By Carol Vinzant

Posted Friday, Oct. 4, 2002, at 4:15 PM PT


President George W. Bush inherited the lousy end of the business cycle. The stock market has been falling throughout his entire term, battered by war, a feeble economy, and corporate scandals. Yet this decay still hasn't shaken Americans' faith that Republicans are better for the economy and the market. Poll after poll shows that when Americans divide up the chores of running the country, they tend to think of the economy and stock market as Republican domain and delegate softer issues, like the environment, to Democrats.

But Democrats, it turns out, are much better for the stock market than Republicans. Slate ran the numbers and found that since 1900, Democratic presidents have produced a 12.3 percent annual total return on the S&P 500, but Republicans only an 8 percent return. In 2000, the Stock Trader's Almanac, which slices and dices Wall Street performance figures like baseball stats, came up with nearly the same numbers (13.4 percent versus 8.1 percent) by measuring Dow price appreciation. (Most of the 20th century's bear markets, incidentally, have been Republican bear markets: the Crash of '29, the early '70s oil shock, the '87 correction, and the current stall occurred under GOP presidents.)

WASHINGTON – Students of government speak of the "graying" of the federal budget. That is to say, over the years government funds tend to favor older adults, who vote, over children, who don't.
In the Monitor
Friday, 04/15/05
In the current great debate about Social Security, you hear a lot about retirees and soon-to-retire baby boomers, not much about the 1 in 3 beneficiaries who receive support from other components of the program.

I am indebted to the National Center for Children in Poverty in New York for a study of the oft-neglected aspects of Social Security. About 3.1 million children under 18 receive benefits because a parent has died or become disabled. Another 2.2 million children live in households where at least one adult receives Social Security benefits. For many families, Social Security is the primary, if not the only source of support, preventing many low-income families from falling into poverty.

The current Social Security debate tends to be couched almost entirely in terms of individual retirees, as though they have no spouses, or children, or grandchildren. The debate loses sight of the fact that Social Security was designed as a family insurance program.

When the Bush administration talks of introducing private investment accounts, it doesn't say how this would affect disabled younger workers who can't accumulate enough assets to start such an account.

In the aftermath of 9/11, most of the children who lost a parent, and surviving parents who stayed home to care for children, qualified for Social Security benefits, along with workers who were disabled on that day.

Social Security is, in fact, the largest children's program America has. But we don't hear much about that, as the administration concentrates on maintaining benefits for retirees.

• Daniel Schorr is the senior news analyst at National Public Radio.