    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book I)]
    [June 23, 2005]
    [Pages 1047-1057]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in a Discussion on Strengthening Social Security in Silver
    Spring, Maryland
    June 23, 2005

        The President. Thanks for the warm reception. Ben, you always draw a good crowd. [Laughter] He claims he went
    to this high school.
        Ben Stein. I did--class of '62.
        The President. Yes, pretty soon you'll be receiving a Social
    Security check.
        Mr. Stein. I hope so. I hope my son
    and my grandchildren will too.
        The President. Listen, thank you all for giving us a chance to come
    and visit with you about Social Security. Before I begin, I do want to
    thank Laurie Checco, who is the business
    manager at Montgomery Blair High School. Thanks for letting us come by.
    I appreciate you opening this beautiful facility.
        I want to thank Mark Mackey and Linda
    Hollands, who are part of the National
    Retirement Planning Coalition for sponsoring this event. It's important
    that there be an open dialog about Social Security, the problems
    inherent with Social Security, and the opportunities to fix Social
    Security. And that's why I've come today. So thank you all for
    sponsoring this.
        You know, some in Washington wish I hadn't brought it up. [Laughter]
    They say, ``Why would you bring up Social Security? I mean, after all,
    we might have to run for election.'' [Laughter] ``Why would you bring up
    such a difficult topic?'' And the answer is because I see a problem, and
    I believe my job is to address problems and not pass those problems on
    to future Presidents, future Congresses, or future generations. And
    here's why I see a problem.
        Before I describe the problem, I do want to congratulate one of my
    predecessors, Franklin Roosevelt, for doing something really smart and
    really wise, and that is setting up a safety net for retirees. Social
    Security has worked. It's been a very important part of a lot of
    people's lives.
        And the first thing I want to say to those who receive a Social
    Security check today: Nothing changes for you; you're in good shape. The
    system is solvent for people receiving a check. The reason I say that is
    because I understand how politics works. You see, the surest way to stop
    something from going forward or stop a dialog or stop reform if reform
    is needed, is to scare people. And in the past, people have used the
    Social Security issue to scare seniors. They say, ``Old George W. gets
    elected, you're not going to get your check,'' or, ``If this goes
    through, you're not going to get your check.'' You know, that's kind of
    shameless politics.
        And so I'm spending a lot of time not only describing the problem
    but assuring seniors that no matter what the rhetoric is coming out of
    Washington, you are going to get your check. So you need to tell your
    grandparents, they're going to get their checks. All of us, whether
    you're Republican or Democrat, know how important this program is to a
    lot of seniors around

    [[Page 1048]]

    the country. The question is not whether the seniors will get their
    checks. The question is whether younger Americans will be able to have a
    safety net, a retirement system just like today's generation gets.
        And here's why we have a problem. There's a lot of people like me
    getting ready to retire. [Laughter] In my case, I reach retirement age
    in 2008, which turns out to be a fairly convenient date. [Laughter] Get
    it? [Laughter]
        About 70 million-plus of us are getting ready to retire. You're so
    old, you don't even qualify as a baby boomer. [Laughter]
        Mr. Stein. Thank you, Mr. President.
        The President. No, don't worry about it. [Laughter]
        There's now about 40 million retirees. So you get a sense of the
    problem. In other words, a whole bunch of people are getting ready to
    retire, and we're living longer than the previous generation, and we've
    been promised greater benefits than the previous generation.
        And so you've got a lot of people getting ready to retire who have
    been promised greater benefits. The problem we have is that there are
    fewer people paying into the system. In 1950, there were about 16
    workers for every beneficiary. Today, there's 3.3 beneficiary--workers
    for every beneficiary. Soon there will be two workers for every
    beneficiary. You've got a lot of people living longer, getting greater
    benefits, with fewer people paying for us. And the system, as a result,
    starts going into the red when the baby boomer generation begins to
    retire.
        As a matter of fact, it starts going into the red in 2017. I know
    that sounds like a long time for people in Washington. It's not very
    long if you're entering the workplace. In other words, you're paying
    into a system that starts going broke in 2017, into the red. And every
    year thereafter, after 2017, the problem gets worse. In 2027, it's $200
    billion in the hole. In 2030, it's $300 billion in the hole.
        See, Social Security is not a trust. It's a pay-as-you-go system.
    You pay, and we go ahead and spend. You pay payroll taxes. You work
    hard. You put payroll taxes into the system, and the Federal Government
    spends your payroll taxes on retirees. And with money left over, it goes
    for Government programs. And all that's left is a file cabinet of IOUs.
    In other words, some think that we're taking your money, and we're
    holding it for you, and then we're going to give it back to you when you
    retire. That's not the way it works. It's a pay-as-you-go system, and
    the pay-as-you-go system starts going into the red. And it gets worse
    and worse and worse.
        As a matter of fact, every year we wait, it's going to cost us $600
    billion to fix it--$600 billion a year to fix it. In other words, the
    longer we wait, the harder it is for me to be able to look at younger
    Americans and say, ``The money you're putting in the system is going to
    be there for you.''
        Now, if you're older, you're going to get your check. If you're born
    prior to 1950, you're fine. If you're a younger American, you need to
    pay attention to this issue. I think this is a generational issue.
    Grandmothers and granddads have nothing to worry about. Their
    grandchildren have got a lot to worry about.
        My strategy has been to travel the country saying, ``We've got a
    problem.'' I think pretty well most Americans now understand we do have
    a problem. And the reason I knew that was the first step that needed to
    be taken is because I have confidence that once people realize there's a
    problem, then they'll ask their elected Representatives to do something
    about it. And I was pleased to see some Members, Republican Members of
    the House and the Senate have started laying out ideas. I've been laying
    out ideas.
        I think it's time for the leadership in the Democrat Party to start
    laying out ideas. See, the American people expect those of us who've
    come to Washington, DC, to negotiate in good faith on behalf

    [[Page 1049]]

    of the people. If there's a problem, people ought to say, ``Here's what
    I'm for,'' not what they're against. People ought to be willing to step
    up and lead, as opposed to playing partisan politics. That's what the
    people want.
        I believe future generations ought to receive benefits equal to or
    greater than the previous generation. I like the idea that has been put
    on the table by a Democrat economist named Pozen. It's called progressive indexing. It says if you're the
    poorest of Americans or lower income Americans, you get your benefits
    calculated by wage increase. If you're the richest Americans, top 1
    percent, you get your benefits calculated by inflation, increase of
    inflation. In other words, everybody's benefits go up. The wealthier
    people's benefits will go up slower than the poorer benefits. And in
    between, there's a scale. That's called progressive indexing. It
    basically says we can make a commitment to poor Americans that if you've
    worked all your life, you're not going to retire into poverty. I like
    that idea. I think that makes a lot of sense. This progressive indexing
    solves--permanently solves most of the problems in Social Security. It
    doesn't solve it all, but it permanently solves most of the problem.
        And there are other ideas on the table. I asked people to bring them
    forth. You've got a good idea, step up with it. I'm more than willing to
    listen. What I'm not going to listen to is this partisan bickering in
    Washington, DC. People really expect us to do different. They expect us
    to think differently and act differently when you see a problem, and we
    have a problem.
        I've got another idea that we're going to discuss today. It's an
    idea that some feel uncomfortable about--I understand that--but I think
    it's certainly worth the dialog. And that is, on the one hand, we ought
    to permanently solve the solvency issue for Social Security so I can--we
    can--all of us involved in politics can look at younger workers and say,
    ``You're fixing to pay into a system that will not only take care of
    baby boomers like me, but there will be a retirement system for you.''
        I also think we ought to make the system a better deal for younger
    workers, and that means giving younger workers the option, the ability,
    if they so choose, to take some of their money--after all, it's your
    money in the payroll taxes--and set it aside in what we call a voluntary
    personal savings account. It's an opportunity--I like the idea of giving
    somebody a chance to build a nest egg that the Government can't spend.
    In other words, remember the--what you have left in the Social Security
    system today is a file cabinet with IOUs in West Virginia. I actually
    went and saw the file cabinet, and I'm proud to report the paper is
    there. [Laughter]
        I like the idea of encouraging people to own assets that they get to
    manage. It makes economic sense. If you're a younger worker and you
    realize that we're taking your money and we're putting it in a system
    that may not be around for you, you ought to demand change. But let me
    tell you what else we're doing. We're taking your money and putting it
    into a system that's yielding about a 1.8 percent return. That's a lousy
    deal.
        So I think you ought to be allowed to take some of your money, set
    it aside in a voluntary personal savings account so you can invest in
    bonds or stocks--bonds and stocks, whatever you so choose. You can't put
    it in the lottery, by the way. There will be go-bys. In other words, the
    Government is going to say, ``We're not going to let you take it to the
    track. We're not going to let you take wild risks.'' People do this all
    the time, by the way, and they get a better rate of return than 1.8
    percent. And if you can get a better rate of return than 1.8 percent,
    that compounds over time. And it's that compounding of interest that
    helps create wealth and security in retirement. The voluntary personal
    accounts will complement that which is available to you through the
    Social Security system. But

    [[Page 1050]]

    you're going to get a better deal on your own money than in the current
    system.
        I like the idea of people having assets that they can pass on from
    one generation to the next. I reject this notion that the investor class
    is confined to only a certain group of people. I think investors ought
    to be around--[applause].
        And finally, I believe this idea ought to be debated because the
    system is not fair, in this sense. If you're a spouse and your other
    spouse--if you're a husband and your wife works or you're a wife and
    your husband works, and you're both contributing in the Social Security
    system, if one of you dies early--if you die before 62, what you get is
    you get a burial benefit from the Government. In other words, you've
    been working all your life; you're putting money in the Social Security
    system--both of you have been--one of you dies early, and the Government
    says, ``Here, fine, here's a burial benefit.'' And then when you get to
    retirement age, you get to choose. You get to choose the benefits of
    your spouse or your own benefits, whichever might be higher, but you
    don't get both.
        Think about that. So you've got two folks contributing into the
    system; one dies early. And by the time the survivor reaches retirement
    age, he or she gets to say, ``I either get my spouse's benefits or my
    benefits, but not both.'' In other words, one of--the deceased spouse
    has contributed to a system, and the money has just gone away. That's
    not fair. It's not fair to say to working people, ``Work all your life,
    and the money you've contributed is not around if you happen to die
    early.'' It's not fair to the spouse. It's not fair to the family.
        If we allow younger workers--if they so choose--to take some of
    their own money--now, remember, I keep saying, ``if they so choose''--to
    take some of their own money and set it up in an asset that grows over
    time, if that were to happen, if somebody were to die early, at least
    there's an asset to pass on to help the spouse.
        See, the system is not fair today. It's not fair for younger workers
    to know it's going broke, and you have to contribute into it. It's not
    fair for people living today, who worked in their system all their--paid
    into the system, and there's not an asset upon death, early death. It's
    not right. And I think now is the time to get something done.
        By the way, the idea of voluntary personal savings accounts is not
    new. You're going to hear from some young investors. Investing is not
    new. It's new for older people. You know, when we grew up, there wasn't
    401(k)s or IRAs. These are relatively new concepts. I bet there was no
    401(k)s when you grew up. You look like a baby boomer. [Laughter] Yes,
    okay, you.
        But the idea of, you know, saying if you work for the Government,
    you can take some of your own money and put it aside in a voluntary
    personal savings account isn't new in Washington. I don't know if you
    know this or not, but the Federal Thrift Savings Plan--see, that's the
    plan that the Congress set up for themselves and people who work in the
    Federal Government--it says if you want to, you can set aside some of
    your own money in a mix of bonds and stocks.
        And so my attitude is--to folks around the country is, if it's a
    good idea for Congressmen and Senators, in other words, if they think
    it's a good enough idea for themselves, it ought to be a good enough
    idea for workers all across the country.
        Anyway, I see a problem. I'm willing to talk about solutions. I'm
    looking forward to working with both Republicans and Democrats to get
    the job done. And I want to thank our panelists for joining us to help
    make some very important points. See, this is an education process we're
    going through. People have got to be educated. There's a lot of messages
    getting out there on the TV screens--you know, people saying this and
    people saying that. Once people understand there's a problem, once the
    grandmothers and granddads understand

    [[Page 1051]]

    they're going to get their check, they can relax. Then they're going to
    start asking people who have been elected to office, ``What are you
    going to do about my grandkids?''
        You don't have a grandkid yet, do you?
        Mr. Stein. Thank God, our son is only
    17. [Laughter]
        The President. Well, that's good. You went to high school here?
        Mr. Stein. I went to Montgomery Blair
    High School, class of '62. The best class ever.
        The President. Really? That's good. [Laughter]
        Mr. Stein. I'm concerned about it. I'm
    extremely concerned about it.
        The President. You've been talking about it for a while.
        Mr. Stein. I talk about it--I
    represent two groups. I represent the National Retirement Planning
    Coalition, which helps people plan for retirement. And I'm also
    representing for the gangstas all across the world--[laughter]--hidden
    corners in them low-lows girl. [Laughter] That's rap music, Mr.
    President. [Laughter]
        The President. Yes. [Laughter]

    [At this point, Mr. Stein, economist, lawyer, actor, and writer, made
    further remarks.]

        The President. I'll tell you an interesting story. I was at an
    automobile plant in Mississippi, and I----
        Audience member. [Applause]
        The President. There you go. [Laughter]
        Mr. Stein. He's from Mississippi.
        The President. Yes, okay, two of you. [Laughter] And I was with the
    line workers. And I said, ``How many of you all have 401(k)s,'' in other
    words, ``How many of you are managing your own money?'' And I bet 90--I
    didn't count, but a lot, 90 percent of the hands went up. These are
    people from all walks of life, all income groups. It's amazing how quick
    you become financially literate when you're watching your own money, in
    other words.
        But let's talk about financial literacy, and let's talk about this
    notion of risk. Let's talk about whether or not a person who is nervous
    about stocks and bonds has the capacity to absorb all these fancy words
    you're talking about.
        Mr. Stein. But they're not--they turn
    out not to be fancy words.
        The President. They sound fancy.
        Mr. Stein. Well, it isn't fancy.
    [Laughter] A stock is a share in ownership of a corporation. A broad
    index of stocks is a share in hundreds, thousands of corporations. And
    the values of those investments will fluctuate from year to year. But
    over long periods of time, they will do incredibly well. I mean, here's
    a statistic--I know you don't like statistics.
        The President. No, I like them, yes, particularly when they help
    make the point. [Laughter]
        Mr. Stein. But over any 20-year period
    in the last 100 years, a person who bought the broad index of the
    Standard & Poor's 500, the largest 500 corporations in America, would
    not have lost money, and his average return would have been 10 times his
    money. That is so much more than Social Security, it's insane. Over a
    25-year period, the average return is more than 20 times his money. And
    there's been no 20-year period in the last 100 years when a stock market
    investor would have lost money. So there will be fluctuations from year
    to year, but over long periods of time, investors in stocks through
    mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, variable annuities will come out
    way, way, way ahead of the game, wildly ahead of the game.
        The President. A lot of people--I hear, you know, I hear these
    people saying, ``Well, all they want to do is let Wall Street get
    rich.''
        Mr. Stein. They're already rich.
    [Laughter]
        The President. All right, richer. In other words, I think one of the
    things people have got to understand--and perhaps you can help on this
    one--is that there will

    [[Page 1052]]

    be negotiated fees on behalf of the people. In other words, you're not
    going to get gouged. I think that's a convenient red herring.
        Mr. Stein. Yes, the usual fees on
    these things, especially if you're a careful shopper and especially
    under your plan, are going to be extremely minimal. I mean, fees for
    many of these things are close to zero. And Wall Street is not going to
    get rich off this. They're already rich. They don't need the money. The
    person who needs the money is the person Ben or Brian's age who is going
    to get in at the age of 20 or 21 or 22 or 25 and is going to let
    compound interest do all the heavy lifting for him. If you get in, in
    your 20s, by the time you're in your 40s, you're set.
        The President. Compound interest--some people many not know what
    that is.
        Mr. Stein. Well, compound interest
    means you earn interest, and then you earn interest on the interest. And
    if you let that work for you in the stock market for 20, 30, 40 years,
    even if you're just putting a small amount away each month, you're going
    to have a much more comfortable retirement than you ever dreamed of
    having. If you start when you're in your 40s or 50s, the problem doesn't
    get solved. If you start when you're 20, it does get solved. And that's
    sort of exactly what we're talking about with your Social Security plan.
    If we start now, it's going to be easy to solve the problem. If we wait
    until the system is already broke, it's going to be incredibly difficult
    and expensive to solve the problem. Why not do it now, when it's easy?
        The President. See, the idea is to say to younger workers, ``Instead
    of putting money into a bankrupt system or a system that will be
    bankrupt, we're going to, one, permanently solve the problem and, two,
    give you a better deal by letting you watch your own money grow,
    investing in a safe mix of bonds and stocks that will compound over
    time.''
        Wendy Merrill is with us. Should we turn
    to Wendy?
        Mr. Stein. Yes, absolutely.
        The President. Wendy, where are you from?
        Wendy Merrill. Good morning. Thanks for
    having me.
        The President. Where are you from?
        Ms. Merrill. I'm from Reisterstown,
    Maryland----
        The President. Reisterstown, very good.
        Ms. Merrill. ----which is near Baltimore.
        The President. Great, thanks for coming over.
        Ms. Merrill. Thank you, my pleasure. I'm
    32 years old, and I----
        The President. You don't look a day over 21.
        Ms. Merrill. Oh, aren't you sweet. Thank
    you.
        The President. Oh, you know how we politicians are. [Laughter]
        Ms. Merrill. I have two family members
    with me today. I wanted to say hi to my husband Stephen and my father
    Neil are in the audience with us today.
        The President. Thanks for coming, yes. Say hello to them after the
    event?
        Ms. Merrill. Yes.
        The President. Good, thank you.
        Ms. Merrill. And I have been in the
    financial services business for 10 years. I'm an insurance broker. I
    work with my family's insurance agency. And I'm a big fan of these
    personal accounts.
        The President. Right.
        Ms. Merrill. I think it's a great solution
    to the problem. I am a member of--I'm a little older than these guys
    over here, but I'm definitely a member of the generation that was taught
    that I couldn't count on Social Security for my retirement. For that
    reason, ever since I joined the workforce, I've been saving in 401(k)s
    and IRAs and really taking charge of my own future, which is what I
    advise my clients to do as well, when we discuss retirement planning. I
    just tell them, you know, ``Don't count on Social Security,'' unless it
    gets fixed, of course.

    [[Page 1053]]

        The President. That's kind of sad, isn't it? Excuse me for
    interrupting. You've got younger Americans saying, ``Don't count on
    Social Security.'' I guess the word is getting out, slowly but surely,
    we've got a problem with Social Security, to the point where you've got
    some people saying, ``Don't count on it.'' As a matter of fact, I saw a
    survey where it said younger workers feel like they're more likely to
    see a UFO than get a Social Security check. [Laughter] Excuse me for
    interrupting.
        Ms. Merrill. No problem. I agree. I mean,
    I----
        The President. It is amazing that we sit here in Washington not
    getting anything done knowing that you've got younger Americans not
    thinking they're going to see a check on Social Security. That's the
    wrong kind of politics.
        Sorry, go ahead.

    [Ms. Merrill, director of business development, Insurance Designers,
    Inc., Owings Mills, MD, made further remarks.]

        The President. Well, that's exactly the concept that I'm asking
    Congress to think about. One of things that people have got to
    understand is like in the Federal Thrift Savings Plan, there is--the
    options are relatively limited. In other words, you can't go out and
    create your own notion about what you want to invest in. The Government
    says, ``Here, if you want to take some of your own money, here's a
    variety of options'' and, you know, mainly bonds, mainly stocks, a mix
    of bonds and stocks. And the truth of the matter is, when you're
    younger, you may want to take a little risk. I presume you say to
    younger people, ``Take a little risk.'' When you're older, kind of----
        Ms. Merrill. Absolutely. I mean----
        The President. ----crank down on the risk.
        Ms. Merrill. ----it's always on an
    individual basis, obviously. But younger people can definitely afford to
    take more risk, and compound interest works for you. And you're better
    off putting a dollar in yesterday as opposed to two dollars tomorrow,
    because of that.
        The President. Yes. Good. Well, thanks for coming.
        Ms. Merrill. My pleasure.
        The President. Appreciate you being here.
        Brian Smart.
        Brian Smart. Yes, sir. How are you?
        The President. Feeling pretty good, yes. [Laughter] How about you?
        Mr. Smart. Good, good.
        The President. Good, thanks for coming. I understand you just got a
    job?
        Mr. Smart. Yes, which my parents--mom and
    dad and sister----
        The President. They must be thrilled, yes. [Laughter]
        Mr. Smart. They were very happy about--very
    happy.
        The President. Well, congratulations. And you paying payroll taxes
    yet?
        Mr. Smart. Yes.
        The President. Yes, you are.
        Mr. Smart. Yes, a lot of them.
        The President. More than you realized, right?
        Mr. Smart. It's a scary thing. I mean, I
    graduated from Radford University. I graduated this December, so
    relatively new, and got a job. And I'm out there making money, and this
    is kind of something that's come up to my attention that it's not going
    to be there. And it's something that really bothers me.
        The President. Like that bite out of the check, first time that
    happened, got your attention?
        Mr. Smart. Well, I mean, it's got my
    attention previously. But it's something that I'm realizing now that--
    and I'm not doing anything. I'm paying into something that I can't even
    use, and there's nothing I'm going to be able to do with it when I
    retire.
        The President. Yes, see, it's kind of a sad thought, isn't it? The
    Government now--has got a system now that has evolved away from
    something that worked really well. Franklin Roosevelt created

    [[Page 1054]]

    something that worked well--working well when there's 15 workers for
    every beneficiary. And slowly but surely over time, as a result of
    demographic change, promises we made, we cannot keep. You got a 23-year-
    old guy, got his first job, saying he's nervous
    about the system.
        Government ought to--Government at the very minimum ought to earn
    the trust of the people. He trusts--[applause]. Keep going.
        Mr. Smart. Well, I mean----
        The President. So have you been paying attention to this issue when
    you were at college?
        Mr. Smart. A little bit.
        The President. Tell me the truth.
        Mr. Smart. No--to be honest, no, I haven't.
    [Laughter] But I mean, it's something that to me I've seen firsthand
    with my grandmother. She's retired, living the life I'd love to live.
    You know, she--her and my grandfather invested wisely when they were
    young, in stocks. And right now she's basically living off her
    dividends. She doesn't count on Social Security----
        The President. Yes.
        Mr. Smart. ----which is something that
    scares me because she's already at retirement.
        The President. Right.
        Mr. Smart. Something I have 40, 50 years
    before it even--I even start drawing Social Security.
        The President. Well, your grandma made some--and grandfather--made
    some wise choices. There's some people in this country, that's all they
    depend upon is their Social Security check. And it's really important
    that those folks know that they're going to continue to get their check.
    There are a lot of people that the only check they live on is the Social
    Security check, which as you can imagine, when they start hearing people
    talking about reforming the system, they're really thinking, ``Well,
    maybe my check is going to go away,'' and people have got to know it's
    not. It's just not going to go away. Government will never do that to
    people. But I'm not so sure you're going to have a check.
        Mr. Smart. And that's something, as a 23-
    year-old person who's paying into Social Security now, really scares me.
        The President. I hope so.
        Mr. Smart. Because I don't--I mean, I don't
    know enough. I don't really know enough right now to try to make a
    decision. And I'm hoping you can guide me in the right direction----
        The President. That's it.
        Mr. Smart. ----and tell me this is what you
    need to do.
        The President. Well, all right, I'll tell you. I'll give you a hint.
    In 2041, the system goes bankrupt. That's not very long.
        Mr. Smart. I know.
        The President. It's long for me and old Ben. That seems like ages, doesn't it?
        Mr. Stein. That's a long time.
        The President. Yes, but not for him.
        Mr. Stein. No, not at all.
        The President. Do you remember when you were 23?
        Mr. Stein. Extremely vividly. I
    remember when I was here at Blair High School at 17 and 16. But you
    know, his grandparents hitched their wagon to a star, which was the star
    of investing in stocks and bonds, and it worked incredibly well. The
    idea of allowing all Americans, not just well-to-do or even upper middle
    class ones, to hitch their wagons to that star makes total sense. Why
    should we say to the ordinary citizen, ``Look, because you're not rich,
    you can't get in on the same kind of investment opportunities that rich
    people can get in on.'' Let's let everybody get in on it. Let's let
    everybody get a chance to make some real money.
        The Standard & Poor's Index compounded at a rate--I know you don't
    like statistics--but 14 percent a year from 1926 to 2004. If you could
    have your Social Security or even a quarter of it or a fifth of it
    compound at that rate instead of at 1.8 percent a year, the difference
    would be astronomical--astronomical.

    [[Page 1055]]

        The President. Yes, I do like statistics. [Laughter]
        Mr. Stein. Okay, sorry. [Laughter]
        The President. Just not too many of them.
        Mr. Stein. Okay. [Laughter]
        The President. What I like more--even more than statistics is the
    notion of an ownership society. We want more people owning something.
        You know, Brian said something interesting--
    he basically turned--he said, ``I hope you old guys fix it.'' And we
    have an obligation to fix it. I think there's a lot of younger folks
    sitting around saying, ``Well, I'm--one, I either don't care; I'm not
    paying attention to it,'' when they start paying attention to it,
    realize there's a problem, and they're going to say, ``Well, you know,
    surely the people we sent to Washington will do something to permanently
    fix it. Surely, there's enough goodwill in the Nation's Capital that
    people will set aside their political parties and come together and
    permanently solve this problem. Surely, they're not going to let us pay
    money into a bankrupt system.''
        I hate to tell you, unfortunately, some are playing politics in
    Washington. But we're going to keep working it and keep working it and
    keep calling upon the people.
        Go ahead.

    [Mr. Smart made further remarks.]

        The President. Like when you were sitting in the library, reading
    all those books, did you ever think about sitting on the stage with the
    President? [Laughter]
        Mr. Smart. No, not at all.
        The President. How about the library part? Was that fiction?
    [Laughter]
        Mr. Smart. Fiction. [Laughter]
        The President. I know what you mean. [Laughter]
        Ben Ferguson.
        Ben Ferguson. Howdy. I'm not one of those
    two Mississippi guys.
        The President. You are from Mississippi? Where?
        Mr. Ferguson. Well, Memphis, but I go to
    school at Ole Miss.
        The President. Oh, Ole Miss. Very good, yes. [Applause]
        Mr. Ferguson. There we go. I'm glad there's
    one.
        The President. So why are you here? Come all the way from Ole Miss.
        Mr. Ferguson. I got together with some
    students who started an organization called Students for Saving Social
    Security----
        The President. Really?
        Mr. Ferguson. ----because we realized that
    basically our second chance at Social Security, the only chance we ever
    have to have this, is if it gets fixed and we get our personal accounts.
    That's the only way we're going to get it. We know it's not there. We
    know we're paying someone money that we're not going to see, and so we
    need our second chance. And that's the only way we're going to get it. I
    mean, besides if we win Ben Stein's money, but he told me there's not
    enough. [Laughter]
        The President. Pretty good line.
        Mr. Ferguson. Yes.
        The President. So how did you get involved in the Social Security
    issue? It's a--it's pretty interesting that you would pick up on the
    issue and decide to do something about it.

    [Mr. Ferguson, communications director, Students for Saving Social
    Security, made further remarks.]

        The President. You're on a roll. Keep going. [Laughter] See, I've
    got a little--one of the dynamics of this issue is the people that are--
    the people that benefit from Social Security today have nothing to worry
    about. You notice I keep saying that. In my line of work, you've got to
    say the same thing over and over and over again, finally get it to sink
    in.
        But one of the dynamics on the issue is that there's a lot of folks
    out there who need to pay attention to it who might not

    [[Page 1056]]

    be paying attention to the issue. And therefore, Members of the Senate
    and the House aren't hearing from younger Americans.
        And so part of the goal is to remind people that if you're getting
    your check, you're going to get your check, but if you've got a child
    coming up, you better start asking the politicians what they're going to
    do about your child or your grandchild.

    [The discussion continued.]

        The President. Yes, that's why I want to repeat what I said earlier.
    I believe in ownership. I want people from all walks of life, every
    background saying, ``This is mine. I own this. I'm going to work my
    life. I'm going to own this asset. I'm going to pass it on to whomever I
    want to pass it on to.'' The more ownership there is in America, the
    better our future is. The more people can say, ``This is my stake. This
    is my home, my business, my retirement fund, my health care account''--
    the more people say, ``I own this,'' the more solid the future of
    America will be.
        Have you got something else, because I've just--that was my
    peroration.
        Mr. Stein. No, I was just going to
    say, it is a basic fact of both political and economic life that
    societies that have a--in which the ordinary citizen feels he has a
    stake in the society and isn't just a ward of the state, isn't just a
    straw in the wind blowing about by the state, are societies that last a
    long time. And we want this society to last forever, and it will if we
    have an ownership society.
        The President. Absolutely. Go ahead, yes.
        Mr. Ferguson. And too, one thing is I want
    to let you know, and there's been a lot of people that have said in the
    media that young people just don't care. We started our organization 2
    months ago. We have over 100 college campuses, chapters that have said,
    ``We want to be involved in this debate.''
        The President. That's good, thank you.
        Mr. Ferguson. Young people care, and I want
    to say thank you to you for actually listening to us instead of talking
    about us.
        The President. Well, I appreciate you. If you're interested, I'm
    sure you've got a web page where people interested in the issue can----
        Mr. Ferguson. Yes, you want me to plug it?
        The President. Well, yes, you've got the grammar--[laughter]----
        Mr. Ferguson. It's secureourfuture.org.
    There you go.
        The President. It's like Marketing I, right?
        Mr. Ferguson. That's right. I'll give you
    some money later.
        The President. Try it again--secureourfuture----
        Mr. Ferguson. Dot org. Right, there you go.
        The President. So people can get on the web page, figure out how to
    help.
        Mr. Ferguson. Start a campus chapter.
        The President. Get involved in the issue.
        Mr. Ferguson. Get involved and be heard.
        The President. My final point is, where does a guy get a pair of
    shoes like that?
        Mr. Stein. You can get them at a place
    called FrontRunners, in Brentwood, California.
        The President. Never mind.
        Listen, thank you all for coming. God bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:03 a.m. at Montgomery Blair High School.
    In his remarks, he referred to Mark J. Mackey, president and chief
    executive officer, and Linda Hollands, vice president, operations,
    National Association for Variable Annuities, a member organization of
    the National Retirement Planning Coalition; and Robert C. Pozen, former
    member, President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security.

    [[Page 1057]]