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American Morning

Bush Announces a Commission to Study Social Security

Aired May 02, 2001 - 11:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to start, though, at the White House where President Bush has just introduced members of his new commission on Social Security. Democrats are already criticizing the presidential panel.

Joining us with details on that, our White House correspondent Kelly Wallace -- Kelly, good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Daryn.

You know, Social Security -- it is an issue that both Democrats and Republicans believe needs to be addressed. The big question it what -- is what needs to be done?

And as you heard, Democratic leader -- Senate minority leader Tom Daschle and House minority leader Richard Gephardt just moments ago -- very much against President Bush's plan to allow younger people to invest a portion of their Social Security funds in the stock market.

Well, Mr. Bush thinks his plan is the right way to go, and White House aides say it should be no surprise that the 16 members of this new bipartisan commission on Social Security all support investing a portion of the Social Security fund in the stock market.

So the president, with his signature, creating this new commission. It is going to be co-chaired by former Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York and Richard Parsons, who happens to be co-chief operating officer of CNN's parent company AOL Time Warner.

Mr. Bush addressing the audience, saying, if something is not done soon, the Social Security system will turn into a crisis, and he believes his idea of allowing people to voluntarily invest some money in the stock market would extend the solvency of the Social Security program.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, young workers who pay into Social Security might as well be saving their money in their mattresses. That's how low the return is on their contributions, and the return will only decline further, maybe even below zero, if we do not proceed with reform. Personal savings accounts will transform Social Security from a government IOU into personal property and real assets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Now the president has called on this commission to come up with recommendations by this fall.

Then Mr. Bush says he will make a presentation to Congress, and he is hopeful that lawmakers will deal with reforming and modernizing Social Security next year, which happens to be an election year.

And, Daryn, there are really different schools of thought about this. Some believe that an election year means it is much less likely that lawmakers will make the controversial decisions to deal with Social Security, while other people believe the election year politics will push lawmakers to do something -- back to you.

KAGAN: Kelly Wallace at the White House. Kelly, thank you.

And all this probably has you thinking about retirement. If you'd like to figure out what that big number is that you would need to retire, you're just a click away. Go to our Web site at CNN.com and look for the retirement calculator.

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