[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]]