    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [March 21, 1998]
    [Pages 416-417]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 416]]

    Teleconference Remarks During a Discussion on Social Security
    March 21, 1998

        The President. Thank you. I'd also like to thank Rebecca Rimel. And I'm delighted to join The Pew
    Charitable Trusts and all of you for this important discussion of Social
    Security. The Pew Trust has done a great service to the country for
    making this possible. We have to discuss how we can ensure that one of
    the greatest achievements of this 20th century continues to serve our
    people very well into the next.
        Before I start, let me tell you about--a little bit about my
    upcoming visit to Africa, because tomorrow I'm going to embark on the
    most extensive trip ever taken to that continent by an American
    President, where I hope to introduce Americans to a new Africa, a place
    where democracy and free markets are taking hold. I hope all of you will
    follow my travels closely.
        These are good times for America. We have 15 million new jobs, the
    lowest unemployment in 24 years, the lowest core inflation in 30 years,
    the highest homeownership in our history. Last month I was pleased to
    present the first balanced budget in a generation. Indeed, we can now
    look forward to $1 trillion of surpluses over the next decade. But I
    don't believe we should spend a penny of this surplus until we have
    saved Social Security first for the 21st century.
        I am very pleased with the strong support the American people have
    shown for this meeting and for meeting this challenge. I thank Americans
    Discuss Social Security for leading the way. For 60 years, Social
    Security has meant more than a monthly check in the mail. It reflects
    our deepest values, our respect for our parents, our belief that all
    Americans deserve to retire with dignity.
        We can't break this solemn compact between the generations. And if
    we act soon and responsibly, we can strengthen Social Security in ways
    that won't unfairly burden any generation. So I challenge my own
    generation to act now to protect our children, to ensure that Social
    Security will be there for them after a lifetime of hard work. And I
    challenge young people to do their part, as well, to get involved in our
    national effort to strengthen Social Security for the 21st century.
        In the coming months, the Vice President and I will attend a series
    of nonpartisan forums to help reach a national consensus on how to go
    forward. In December I'll convene a White House Conference on Social
    Security, with a view to early 1999, when I hope and believe we can
    craft historic, bipartisan legislation to save Social Security.
        In the darkest days of the Great Depression, Americans had the
    courage to commit to a daring plan whose impact would not be fully known
    for a generation. In the midst of these prosperous times, we must
    strengthen that commitment for generations yet to come. Your views will
    be vital to our work here in Washington, and I look forward to hearing
    your comments.
        Thank you very much.

    [At this point, the discussion began.]

        The President. Let me try to respond a little bit to what all the
    folks said. Obviously, I don't know in the previous meetings exactly how
    much information was out there and how much not. And we're in the
    process, as I said, of a year-long dialog. But let me just offer a
    couple of observations.
        In 1983, there was a bipartisan commission to deal with the problem
    in Social Security. And they came up with a whole set of changes which
    included, very slowly over a period of years, raising the retirement age
    to 67 for people drawing full Social Security benefits, which will
    happen sometime in the next century, because the average life expectancy
    is much longer. When Social Security was enacted and the retirement age
    was 65, the average American did not live to be 65 years old. So that
    happened. Then there was an increase in the payroll tax back in '83, and
    it was estimated that for a period of time Social Security would bring
    in more money than it paid out and that the money could safely be
    pledged, in effect, to buy Government bonds, to finance the deficit. And
    that's what has essentially happened.
        Now, I've done my best to try to turn that situation around by
    getting us back to balance and now moving us into surplus so that we can
    recover some of these funds in the future to deal with the long-term
    challenge of Social Security.
        But here's the basic problem, which I'm sure you understand. In
    2029, all the baby boomers

    [[Page 417]]

    will be 65 or over. Most of them will be in the retirement system. At
    that time, if we continue to work at present rates, retire at present
    rates, and grow our population at present rates, there will be only
    about two people working for every one person drawing. Even today, very
    few people can actually live on only their Social Security income. But
    it's important to remember that, if we didn't have Social Security
    income, nearly half the seniors in this country would not be above the
    poverty line.
        So the trick is how to make this system last beyond 2029 without
    having undue new tax burdens on younger people who are trying to raise
    their children. What options are out there for doing that, and how can
    we also make it easier, as many of you said, to save for your own
    retirement? The one thing I think is very important is that young people
    understand especially what the realities are. I mean, I saw a survey the
    other day that said that some people--a lot of people in their twenties
    thought it was more likely that they would see a UFO than that they
    would ever draw Social Security. Now, that's not accurate. We can easily
    save this system. And we may be able to do a number of things, including
    some of the things that some of you suggested that would give a higher
    rate of return on the investment.
        But under presently conceivable circumstances, no matter what we do
    with the Social Security system, Americans should be saving more for
    their own retirement. So we're working very hard right now to make it
    easier, for example, for more people in small businesses and more self-
    employed people to take out 401(k) plans, to take those plans with them
    when they move jobs, to have a system that would guarantee the security
    of that kind of retirement savings. And we've done a number of things in
    the last 2 years; there is some more legislation before Congress now.
    And some of you in these hearings may have even greater ideas about what
    we can do to make it easier for people to save for their own retirement.
        But I always tell people that we actually have two things we have to
    do. We have to secure the safety, the soundness, and the salvation of
    Social Security into the 21st century and look at all the options that
    have been raised here by you. But we also have to educate the American
    people that they must save more for their own retirement, and then we
    have to make it easier for them to do so and to succeed in doing so.
        The last point I'd like to make is this: Because of the reductions
    in the deficit, the reduction in interest rates, we may have already
    added a few years to the life of the Social Security Trust Fund. We can
    put a lot of years on the life of the Fund; we can stabilize the Fund.
    And now that we've eliminated these chronic, huge deficits of the last
    decade and a half, we can set this thing right. And if we can act now,
    meaning early next year, with the support of the American people across
    party lines and regional lines and income lines, we can make modest
    changes today that will have a huge impact in the next century.
        So the last thing I'd like to say to all of you is, one of you said
    that you wanted us to do what we needed to do in a hurry and in a
    nonpartisan, fair way. That's the message I think that all of us need to
    hear, all the Members of Congress, all the members of our
    administration. We do not need to put this off. Many people are afraid
    that anything you do to Social Security is political dynamite. I think
    it's worse dynamite to walk away from a problem when we can solve it
    with disciplined, modest, far-sighted actions now, that will have a huge
    impact 20 and 30 years from now.
        So I thank you. I was profoundly impressed by what you had to say,
    and I wish I had more time to go through all your questions. I know now,
    in 2 hours, Ken Apfel, our Social Security
    Administrator, will be on this program, and he'll be able maybe to pick
    up some of the more specific questions you asked me and others that you
    doubtless will have for him.
        And again let me thank The Pew Charitable Trusts. This is a
    wonderful public service.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:05 p.m. by satellite from Room 459 of
    the Old Executive Office Building, in a 10-city interactive video
    teleconference and webcast held as part of Americans Discuss Social
    Security (ADSS), a project of The Pew Charitable Trusts. In his remarks,
    he referred to Rebecca W. Rimel, president, The Pew Charitable Trusts.