[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book I)]
[February 16, 2005]
[Pages 230-241]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks in a Discussion on Strengthening Social Security in Portsmouth,
New Hampshire
February 16, 2005
The President. Thanks for coming. Hi, John. It's nice to be back with friends. Thank you all for being
here. We're here to talk about a vital issue, and that is Social
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Security. But before I do, I want to say hello to some folks, maybe talk
about a few other things. And then we'll get our panel involved.
Before I begin on other things, I just want you to know what I think
my job is, to confront problems, and not to pass them on. And so, as you
hear a discussion about issues, I hope you keep that in mind. I believe
a leader ought to, when they see a problem, address it head on and not
say, ``Okay, we'll wait for somebody else to take care of the problem.''
That's what we're here to discuss.
First, I want to really thank your Senators from the great State of
New Hampshire, Senator Judd Gregg and Senator
John Sununu. I appreciate their leadership. I
appreciate their advice. I appreciate the fact that they're willing to
jump on Air Force One any time I come to New Hampshire, for a free ride.
[Laughter] Judd is in charge of the budget for the United States Senate.
Believe me, he brings a sharp New Hampshire eye to the budget process,
and that's good. I'm looking forward to working with him. He'll be a
great budget leader.
I want to thank the speaker of the house, Speaker Scamman, and the president of the New Hampshire
Senate for joining us. Thank you, members,
for being here. I'm proud you're here. I want to wish my friend
Commissioner Dick Flynn a happy birthday.
Today is his birthday. I want to thank the State and local officials who
are here, appreciate you coming.
I want to thank Reggie Wright. I met--
where's Reggie? Yes, Mr. Wright, thank you for coming. Reggie Wright is
81 years old--or will be 81 on Monday. He is a volunteer at the veterans
hospital, and I appreciate that. The Portsmouth Veterans Affairs
Community Based Outpatient Clinic, right here in--that's a long word,
but anyway--a long series of words--here at Pease. And I appreciate his
volunteering.
See, here's the thing about volunteering. If you volunteer to make
your community a better place, you're adding to the great compassion of
America. And so, for those of you who are taking time out of your life
to help feed the hungry or provide shelter for the homeless or love
somebody who hurts, I want to thank you for being a soldier in the army
of compassion. Thank you for setting such a good example,
Reggie. I appreciate that.
I'm getting ready to go to Europe, and I'm looking forward to it.
I'm looking forward to talking about how we can work together to extend
freedom around the world so that the world is more peaceful for
generations to come. I'm looking forward to reminding the people of
Europe that there has been some amazing events in the march of freedom,
if you think about it. The Afghan people went to the polls in the
millions to vote for a new leader, and that is
important, providing an example for others to show what can happen when
people are given a chance to live in a free society. Free societies are
peaceful societies. Democracies produce peaceful nations. And the
elections of Afghanistan--I hope you found them as hopeful as I did, and
I'm convinced many in the--on the continent of Europe found hopeful as
well.
I will remind them about what happened in Iraq. It was a grand
moment when millions defied the terrorists and went to the polls to say,
``We want to live in a free society.'' For those of you who have been to
Iraq--I see we've got some marines here--or family members in Iraq, I
want to thank you for your loved ones' sacrifices. I hope that the hug
that took place at the State of the Union spoke to you as much as it
spoke to a lot of people I've talked to. It certainly spoke to me. It
said that there's a mom who's longing for--to
be able to hug her son, but her son's sacrifice was recognized by the
woman who got to vote. It was a--I
thought it was a wonderful moment of compassion and freedom and,
eventually, peace that we all want for our children and grandchildren.
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Freedom is on the march, and I look forward to working with our
friends in Europe to continue that march, so when it is all said and
done we can look back and say, ``The world is safer and more peaceful
for our children and grandchildren.''
Looking forward to working with the Congress to make sure we put
things in place--plans in place to keep this economy growing. The
unemployment rate here is 3.3 percent. That's pretty low. Things are
going well. I suspect it's because the entrepreneurial spirit is strong,
and so we've got to work on ways to make sure the entrepreneurial spirit
remains strong all around the country.
I've got some ideas. One is to make sure the budget is wise. I'm
looking forward to working with Judd and Members
of the House and the Senate to say, ``We'll set priorities with your
money. We'll make sure there's clear priority. If a program doesn't
work, we need to eliminate it.'' We need to be wise about spending the
money. And I think that will set the tone for future economic growth,
when people see that we're serious about dealing with our deficits.
We're going to do something about lawsuits. The Senate voted out a
good bill on class-action lawsuits. There's more lawsuit reform that
needs to be done. I'm looking forward to working with the House and the
Senate. We want to make sure the scales of justice are balanced. And
they're not balanced around this country when frivolous lawsuits make it
hard for small businesses to expand their employee base, and they're not
balanced when doctors are getting run out of practice. This Congress
needs to do something about asbestos, and they need to get a medical
liability reform to my desk.
There's a lot of issues we can work together on to make sure that
the economy continues to grow. We need to get an energy policy--energy
bill; I've put out a policy. I'm looking forward to working with
Judd and John Sununu
to get a bill out of the United States Senate that enhances
conservation, that talks about renewable uses of energy. I am--believe
that we ought to expand nuclear power to make us less dependent on
foreign sources of energy and, at the same time, do a better job of
protecting our environment.
We need to continue to provide money for technologies to make the
cars we drive cleaner. One of these days, it would be nice if biodiesel
or ethanol becomes even more commercially available, so that when the
crops are up, we're less dependent on a source of energy from coming
overseas. And so I want to work with the Congress to promote a good
energy plan--good energy bill that will enable this President and future
Presidents to say that we're less dependent, that we're more self-
sufficient when it comes to energy, which will be good for our economy
and good for our national security as well.
And now I want to talk about Social Security. And I'm sure there are
some, when they heard the State of the Union, if they listened to it,
that said, ``Why is he spending so much time on what had been--used to
be called the `third rail of American politics'?'' That means, if you
touched it, you were politically electrocuted. I guess that's what it
meant. I've touched it. I touched it in 2000 when I campaigned here and
around the country. I touched it in 2004, and I really touched it at the
State of the Union, because I believe we have a problem. And I want to
talk to you about the problem.
And Tim Penny, my friend, former
Democrat Member from Minnesota, is also going to talk about the problem.
And I'm going to throw out some ideas about the solution as well, and I
want to hear from our panelists here in a minute. Laura said, ``Make sure you tell everybody hello when you
come, and make sure you give the panelists a chance to speak.''
[Laughter] So far I'm not listening to her too well. [Laughter]
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So here's the problem. In the olden days, in the 1950s, 16 workers
would be paying in the system for every beneficiary. That means that the
worker had less of a burden to pay the benefits that were promised. And
the system was working great. And by the way, Social Security is vital.
It's a really important system.
But things have changed since the 1950s. First, baby boomers, like
me and Judd and Penny and a couple others of you out there, are getting ready to
retire. There's a lot of us. And instead of living to about 60 years,
which was the life expectancy early in the Social Security calculations,
we're now living to 77 years, and a bunch of us hope we do better than
that. So you got a bunch of people fixing to retire, a bulge of retirees
coming into the system, who are going to live longer. Plus, the benefits
promised to the baby boomers are 40 percent higher, in real terms, than
the seniors retiring today. So just think about that aspect of the
environment in which we live, more people, living longer, being promised
greater benefits.
The problem is compounded by this: There's not enough people paying
money into the system to pay for all that. The ratio of payers to
beneficiaries is going from 16 to 1 to 3.3 to 1 today. And when--and
down the road it's going to be 2 to 1. So you can see the formula begins
to get a little disturbed. It makes it hard to pay the promises. As a
matter of fact, in 2018, the system goes into the red.
And by the way, there's not a Social Security trust. In other words,
people think your money goes into the trust, and it's held for your
account, and then you get it out. That's not the way it works. It's
``pay as you go.'' It goes in, and it goes out. And to the extent that
there's money more than the retirees receive, like it is today, it goes
to other programs. And so what you've got is an IOU, kind of a bank of
IOUs. It's an important concept.
So money that's going in is greater than money going out today for
Social Security. But in 2018, the system goes into the red, and every
year thereafter the situation gets worse; 2027 will cost the Federal
Government $200 billion above and beyond payroll taxes to make the
promises; and in 2042, the system goes broke. Those are the facts.
Now, 13 years isn't very far down the road. You know, if you've got
a 5-year-old child, it means when your child is getting ready to vote,
the system goes negative. It may seem like a lot for some in the United
States Congress who have got 2-year terms. But it's not a lot if you're
a grandfather who's worried about whether or not your grandchild is
going to have a retirement system that works and whether or not we've
got the capability of dealing with the problem before it gets even
worse, because the longer you wait, the more severe the remedies become.
Now, I want to--I fully understand--you've got to know this about
many of us in Congress who are discussing reforms--we understand that
many people rely upon their Social Security check. And I know that any
discussion about Social Security can frighten people who rely upon their
Social Security check. I mean, I remember the campaigns where people
would say, ``If you vote for George W., you're not going to get your
Social Security check.'' In other words, it's been part of the political
dynamic. People would say--even if you discussed it, that would frighten
people. And so, not only am I going to spend time traveling our
country--this is my ninth trip since the State of the Union--or ninth
State--I'm going to continue traveling over and over and over again,
making it clear to the American people we have a problem. I'm also going
to travel over and over and over again to say to people who have
received a check--who are receiving a check and those near retirement,
people born before 1950, ``Nothing changes.'' It doesn't matter what the
rhetoric might be, no matter what the mailers may say, nothing changes
for people who have retired or near retirement, and that's really
important.
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Now, I have an obligation to talk about solutions as well. And in my
State of the Union Address, I may have been the first President ever to
have talked about different ideas about how to permanently fix the
problem for younger generations of Americans. And Republicans and
Democrats have both--have all come forth with different ideas. Tim is an
example. He is on the leading edge of the Social Security debate. I
mean, he was talking about it way before I was even thinking about
running for President. And he's had some interesting ideas, and I
mentioned his name in the State of the Union as being the kind of person
who had the courage to step up and say, ``Here are different options.''
And it's important to keep the options on the table. And it's important
for me to say to the Members of Congress, ``If you've got a good idea,
bring it forward. There will be no political retribution.''
President Clinton thought raising the
age might have made sense. Daniel Patrick Moynihan had an idea. Tim
Penny had some ideas. And so my message
today is: Bring them forth; let's sit down at the table and discuss ways
to permanently fix the system. I'm openminded. And I think that's what
you want from your President at this point--not for me to prescribe the
solution, because I don't get to write the law, but to call Members
forward and say, ``We'll work with you. We'll look at all the different
options, with the exception of the payroll tax increase.''
Now, I've got an idea that I'd like for Congress to consider, and I
want to share the idea with you here. It's a novel idea--oh, it's really
not that novel. As a matter of fact, it's a part of the Federal employee
retirement plan. It's a thrift benefit plan. It's a plan that allows
Federal employees to set aside some of their money and put it in safe
stocks and bonds, so they get a better rate of return on their money
than they would otherwise. So it's not new. The idea of allowing people
to invest their money, their own money, is not a new thought. That's
what's already happening with Federal employees. I'm the kind of fellow
who believes if it's good enough for Federal employees, it ought to be
considered for younger workers. In other words, there ought to be a--and
that's the idea of letting younger workers set aside some of their own
payroll taxes in a personal savings account.
The benefits are these, in my judgment: One, you get a better rate
of return on your money than that which is in the Social Security
system. If you're a younger worker, and say--my proposal is, is that you
can put 4 percent of your payroll taxes in the account, and the rest of
it, obviously, will go into the Social Security system. If you're a
younger worker who averages $35,000 over your lifetime, and you put the
money set aside--the 4 percent allowed to be set aside into a personal
account, because of the compounding rate of interest, that will
accumulate--you'll accumulate $250,000 when it comes time to retire. So
you've got money in the Social Security system, however much Congress
can afford, plus your own nest egg of $250,000. That's for a worker who
earns $35,000 over his or her lifetime.
And the reason why the money grows is because interest compounds.
I'm trying to sound like an economist; I was a simple history major. But
nevertheless, people--if you keep reinvesting in safe stocks and bonds,
money grows. And it's important for younger workers to be able to watch
their money grow.
Now, you can't take that money and put it in the lottery, in all due
respect to those who like the lottery. In other words, there's going to
be some safe guidelines. We've already done this. The Federal employee
benefit plan does just that. It says, ``Here is a conservative mix of
stocks and bonds available for you to get a better rate of return than
that which you get with your money flowing through the Social Security
system.''
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It makes sense for younger workers to hold their own account,
because when they pass on, they can leave their own assets to whomever
they choose. I think that's a wonderful idea.
Certainly the personal account doesn't fix the system. There needs
to be better reforms, more meaningful reforms than that. But what the
personal account will do, it will make it more likely--it will make it
so that a younger worker gets closer to the promises made, because of
the compounding rate of interest.
There's going to be a lot of discussion about how to fund these
accounts. I look forward to working with Congress. I'm interested; I'm
openminded. One of the suggestions we made is the accounts start very
slowly, so they become easier to finance, and they grow over time.
Senators and Congressmen may have different ideas. I just want the idea
of people being able to manage their own money to be a part of the
debate. It makes financial sense, and it makes sense to promote
ownership in America. I think that when more people own something, the
more they'll have a stake in the future of this country.
Now, a couple of other guidelines that you need to know about, and
then we'll get to our panel. Laura's voice is
beginning to kind of echo in my ears. You can't take all your money when
you retire and take a trip. In other words, this is your account, but
there's got to be guidelines because the account is set up to help
supplement your Social Security check. And so you can't withdraw it.
There will be withdraw requirements, for example.
However, if you do pass it on to a survivor, that survivor can
liquidate the account and live on it, which oftentimes does not happen
in Social Security today. For example, if a person were to die prior to
60 years old, all the money going into the account--and the kids are
over a certain age--all the money in the account goes away. I've talked
to widows who would like to see at least something left over for all the
hard work their husband has done--or vice versa, if the woman is working
and the husband is the beneficiary--that there's an account to pass on.
So what I'm telling you is, is that there's ways to make this system
conservative, is the right word to use. It's easy to come--develop a mix
of stocks and bonds that can beat the rate of return that the money now
earns in the--going through the Social Security system and enable a
younger worker to have a compounded rate of interest that grows over
time. And that's what I want the Congress to discuss and think about.
I understand it's novel and it's different. But when the Members of
Congress think about it, it's not all that novel and different. And
we're going to talk to some people who are thinking about 401(k)s, what
that means. We're developing an investor society.
Let me conclude by this thought: Investors aren't just Wall Street
people, as far as I'm concerned. You've got ``the investor class''--if
you think about that, that means only certain people are capable of
investing. I disagree. I think every citizen--every citizen--has got the
capacity to manage his or her own money. And if they don't, we'll help
them understand how to, and the rules will be such that they can. And I
believe the so-called investor class ought to be every American,
regardless of his or her background.
So that's what's on my mind, Social Security. And I'm excited about
the issue. I like getting out with the people and talking about it, and
I told Tim this coming in. He said, ``Mr.
President, you're going to have to work this issue.'' I said, ``Don't
worry about it. Every week, I'm out of Washington, DC, in forums like
this.'' And I'll continue to do it. I'm going to talk to the American
people over and over and over again until the Members of Congress
recognize we have a problem. And then I'm going to ask them the same
question that people have asked me, ``If we've got
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a problem, what are you going to do about it?'' People expect us to lead
on this issue. They expect us to put our parties aside and move forward
on this issue to solve the problem for the American people, which is
exactly what we're going to do.
And here's a guy--he is a man who has
put party aside, put his country first. He's served as a United States
Congressman from Minnesota, like I told you. And he is our expert on the
subject. He's a senior fellow at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute Policy
Forum in Minnesota. Thanks for coming. Give us your thoughts.
Representative Timothy J. Penny. Well,
thank you, first of all, Mr. President, for your leadership on this
issue, because this is the most important domestic program ever created.
It's provided enormous security to senior citizens in America, that they
know they have a safety net they can't fall below, and that's important
to maintain. But as you've articulated, we need to strengthen this
program for the 21st century. It was created 70 years ago, different
time, different place, circumstances have changed. We've got new
generations coming along, and they rightfully are worried about the
future of this program. And we need to give them a voice in how to
change this program for the future.
[At this point, Representative Penny, senior fellow and co-director,
Hubert H. Humphrey Institute Policy Forum at the University of
Minnesota, Waseca, MN, made further remarks.]
The President. Yes. Let me just give an example. Today, a retired
average-wage earner gets 14,200 a year in benefits. So think about what
two workers per beneficiary means. It means that one worker would have
to pay $7,000 to support that retiree. So my--sorry, Tim, I'm just trying to quantify the burden.
Representative Penny. That's fine. And
it does put it in very real terms, because that's a big chunk of change.
I was at a dinner last night with another leader on this issue, retired
Congressman Charlie Stenholm, and he said, ``Well, I've got it all
figured out. Since there's only going to be two workers to support my
retirement, I'm picking Tiger Woods and Jessica Simpson.'' [Laughter]
But we don't have that luxury.
[Representative Penny made further remarks.]
The President. Tim, help me on this. I
need for you to, if you feel like it, talk to the seniors who are
receiving checks today. I mean, people have got to understand--I know I
sound like a broken record, but I've heard people say, ``Well, he's
talking about Social Security reform. It means seniors aren't going to
get their checks or are not going to get their full amount promised.''
You've looked at this----
Representative Penny. Well, I can talk
to this on two levels, one, as a member of your Commission a few years
ago. We said that all changes would be phased in over time, so anyone
that's currently retired or anyone that's near retirement would be in
the traditional system, the current system, no changes whatsoever.
But I can also speak to this from my own life experience. My mother
lives on Social Security and nothing else, so she's in that category of
people that rely on this current system. And for her there will be no
changes. I have two younger brothers who are disabled, and they get
disability assistance, and we're going to protect that program for those
people that need the program. So that's a separate issue. We're talking
about what we need to do for the next generation of workers coming along
and how to strengthen and improve this system for them. So they're
really separate issues.
The President. Perfect. All right, Frank, Frank Partin and his daughter, Amy. It's a
interesting idea, whoever--I want to congratulate the people who picked
our panelists, because this is really a generational
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issue when you think about it, in many ways--dad/daughter, retired/not
retired. [Laughter] Frank, what did you do? What did you do here?
Franklin Partin. Thank you, Mr.
President.
The President. How did you make a living for a while?
Mr. Partin. How did I make my living,
Mr. President?
The President. Yes.
Mr. Partin. I was in the Air Force for
many years, and I----
The President. There you go. Thanks for serving. [Applause] I
appreciate that.
Mr. Partin. I beg your pardon?
The President. I appreciate it, and so do the people out here,
obviously.
Mr. Partin. Thank you. We appreciate
you, Mr. President.
The President. Well, thank you.
Mr. Partin. My name is Franklin Partin,
Jr. My wife and family and I reside in New Boston, New Hampshire. My
lovely wife----
The President. Where is she?
Mr. Partin. Right down there in the blue
jacket.
The President. You're right. She is lovely. We'll see you
afterwards.
Mr. Partin. I'm 69 years old. I've been
retired for about 6 years now. And I'm receiving Social Security. It
comprises about 40 percent of our retirement income. I'm very thankful
for it. But I recognize that there's a serious problem with it, and I
appreciate the plan that you have because I think it's something that my
daughter, when she gets to be my age and wants to think about it, will
have something viable to count on.
The President. So Social Security is important for you--obviously
not to the extent that it's important for Tim's mom, but 40 percent of a person's money, what they're
living on, is important. And as you discuss this issue with people,
Frank, you hear people say, ``Yes, it looks like Congress is going to
reduce my benefits for retired people.'' Is that out there still?
Mr. Partin. I've heard things like that,
but that's not my experience at all.
The President. It's not what you're thinking. That's good to know.
Well, it's not going to happen. And this is important. I'll tell you why
it's important, because once the people who get their Social Security
checks realize nothing changes, then all of a sudden they're going to
start saying, ``How about my daughter? What are you going to do about
the next generation coming up?'' One of the great things about the
generation which is retired is they've always worried about the next
generation. And that's what we need to be worried about. That's why
Frank has agreed to stand here in front of
all these cameras, sitting up here with the President, worried about
speaking, I'm sure, because he was worried about his daughter. That's why he came--once he's assured that the check, his
check, isn't going to change.
And by the way, before I talk to Amy, I do
want to say something to the people who are going to be voting on this
legislation. Once the seniors realize nothing changes, the voices you'll
hear from are the Amys of America who are saying, ``Mr. Elected
Official, what you going to do about it to make sure I don't get stuck
with 200 billion a year, near 300 billion a year deficits over time? Why
don't you address the problem now and not wait and pass it on so the
next generation coming up has to deal with it?''
So Dad did good, didn't he? Your dad did
good?
Amy Partin. Yes, he did.
The President. Yes. All right, Amy, what do
you do?
Ms. Partin. My name is Amy Partin. I'm a
senior at the University of New Hampshire at Manchester. I'm studying
English.
The President. Good, yes. I could use a few lessons. [Laughter]
Ms. Partin. I'll see you afterwards.
[Laughter]
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The President. Yes, quick tutorial. [Laughter]
Ms. Partin. I am also working as a part-time
tutor as I go to school. [Laughter]
[Ms. Partin, student, University of New Hampshire at Manchester, New
Boston, NH, made further remarks.]
The President. Interesting idea, isn't it? Here's a person getting
ready to get out of college, and she says she's
thinking about how to save her own money. And remember, the payroll tax
is not the Government's money; it's your money. And I think the people--
there are a lot of young people around America saying, ``Why don't you
think of a system that will work, that enables us to watch our assets
grow.'' I think there's nothing healthier for a society in which they
see an asset base grow.
And by the way, Amy, because she's younger,
can find a--amongst conservative portfolios, a little higher return
portfolio, and as she gets ready to retire, can shift from stocks and
bonds to Treasury bills or whatever may be available at the time, so
that it can--it helps to make sure that you deal with market
adjustments. But over time, money grows. That's what Tim's committee, I suspect, discovered. They
discovered--you might assure people of that.
Representative Penny. Well, we did ask
the Social Security actuaries to run numbers on what a modest account
for young workers would mean to them over the course of their lifetimes,
contributing 4 percent of payroll per year into these accounts. And in
every instance, they did markedly better than what the current system is
promising them. And bear in mind, the current system is promising them
about 30 percent more than it can pay them, because there won't be
enough money in the current system to pay them. So with these personal
accounts, they come out better, even assuming very conservative growth
in their fund over the course of their working lives.
The President. So if she starts early with
her own money, which I think you just told me you'd like to do----
Ms. Partin. That's right.
The President. ----it grows. It grows to a substantial amount. If
you think about the worker making 35,000 over his or her lifetime, and
they set 4 percent of the payroll taxes aside and it turns into 250,000,
imagine the person who makes 50,000 over his or her lifetime, or 70,000.
In other words, we're talking about the accumulation of significant
amounts of wealth to help complement, not replace but complement the
Social Security check. And that's important as well for people to
understand.
We've got us a dairy farmer with us. That would be you,
Bill.
William Yeaton. Yes, welcome to New
Hampshire.
The President. Did you ever envision coming off the dairy farm to--
lending your wisdom here about Social Security?
Mr. Yeaton. Up at 4 this morning, quick
shower, and now we're down here.
The President. That's good. [Laughter] Like, when was the last time
you wore a tie, just out of curiosity? [Laughter]
Mr. Yeaton. It wasn't yesterday.
[Laughter]
The President. That's good. [Laughter] I don't blame you, man. I'm
stuck, though. [Laughter]
Mr. Yeaton. Well, my name is Bill Yeaton.
I'm here with my wife, Cerina.
The President. Where is she? Thanks.
Mr. Yeaton. The girl beside her, Shannon,
my daughter, and Samuel, and also my mother, Beulah.
The President. Good, talk to Mom, that's
for certain.
Mr. Yeaton. So we're----
The President. Is your mother still giving
you instructions?
Mr. Yeaton. I was getting dressed this
morning, so I was getting some help. [Laughter]
The President. So is mine. [Laughter]
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Mr. Yeaton. And I was up--[laughter]--I
was up most of the night, hoping I wouldn't forget their names, so we
got that by--we have to keep going.
The President. Yes, that's good. [Laughter] So you're a dairy
farmer. A little bit about the history of the farm, just out of
curiosity.
Mr. Yeaton. The history of the farm, I'm
a fourth-generation dairy farmer.
The President. Same farm?
Mr. Yeaton. Same farm.
The President. Fantastic.
[Mr. Yeaton, co-owner, Yeaton Dairy Farm, Epsom, NH, made further
remarks.]
The President. That's 4 percent of the payroll tax. It's not 4--it's
4 percent out of the payroll tax; that's important. So it's like a third
of the payroll tax.
So how is the milk business?
Mr. Yeaton. Last year, we had a pretty
good year. The cows are doing well.
The President. It's never good enough, though, if you're a farmer,
right?
Mr. Yeaton. I was going to sit up here
and say we need more milk----
The President. Wait a minute. [Laughter]
Mr. Yeaton. ----the price of milk is too
low.
The President. Write your Congressman. [Laughter]
Mr. Yeaton. I practiced that speech last
night, talking about milk prices, and said, ``No, we're not going to use
that.''
The President. Okay, good, yes, thanks. [Laughter] So you and your
wife have got a 401(k)?
Mr. Yeaton. Oh, yes, my wife has a
401(k).
The President. She's got the 401(k)?
Mr. Yeaton. Yes.
The President. Everybody know what a 401(k) is? It's a defined
contribution plan. You contribute your money into a plan and watch it
grow. When I was your age, I don't--let me say when I was younger than
your age, there weren't a lot of 401(k)s. I don't remember coming up
talking about 401(k)s. And by the way, I never remember, when I was
Amy's age, talking about whether Social Security
would be around. I mean, baby boomers just assumed it would be around,
and it is for us. This is an interesting dialog, isn't it? The dynamics
have shifted a lot. Here we've got a dairy farmer talking about how he and his wife manage their own money. That's what you're doing,
right?
Mr. Yeaton. Yes. In the old days, they
used to say, ``Farmers don't retire. We just pass on.'' But that has
changed.
The President. That's good, pretty good. A little agricultural humor
there. [Laughter] But you're managing your 401(k). Think about what has
changed in society. You've got younger folks saying, ``We're managing
our own money. We're looking after our own money. We're watching the
401(k) grow. We're making decisions.'' And so the idea of extending what
is happening in society to Social Security seems like to make a lot of
sense, doesn't it?
This is a society where younger folks are saying, ``Just give me a
chance to watch my own money grow and, at the same time, go milk those
cows.'' [Laughter] Are you still milking them by hand here in New
Hampshire?
Mr. Yeaton. Oh, no. We've got a state-of-
an-art process.
The President. You're mechanized? That's good. [Laughter]
Mr. Yeaton. We had to change our 70-year-
old plan too.
The President. There you go. [Laughter] Very good.
And finally, Marlo Downer is with us. Thank
you for coming, Marlo.
By the way, good job, Bill. For a farmer,
you're pretty darn articulate. [Laughter]
Marlo, tell us about yourself. Where do you
work?
Marlo Downer. I work at Wentworth-Douglass
Hospital in Dover.
The President. Dover? Hospital? Very good. Mom?
[[Page 240]]
Ms. Downer. I'm a single mom of a 13-year-
old son.
The President. Where is he?
Ms. Downer. Douglas.
The President. Hey, Douglas. Like teenage
years?
Ms. Downer. Yes.
The President. Interesting experience.
Ms. Downer. Oh, yes. [Laughter]
The President. I've been through them. [Laughter] I like to tell
people, Marlo has got the hardest job in
America, being a single mom. And she's worried about retirement.
[Ms. Downer, intensive care unit nurse, Wentworth-Douglass Hospital,
Dover, NH, made further remarks.]
The President. And so, let me ask you, in your plan, how often do
you get a statement, just out of curiosity? Quarterly?
Ms. Downer. I believe it's quarterly.
The President. Yes. That makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, I think
it's kind of a reminder about the need for people to pay attention to
policy or know what the Government is doing with your money as you
watch--on a quarterly basis, watch your asset base begin to grow. And
that's important.
And so, tell us about Social Security. Here's your chance, with
everybody watching.
[Ms. Downer made further remarks.]
The President. Are you aware of the problem? Obviously, otherwise
you wouldn't be sitting here. But I mean, I just wonder how often
people--how aware people are that we have a serious problem. That
chart--and this chart, by the way, which is reality, just shows how big
the deficits are, starting in 2018. I mean, it's like you wait, and
then, all of a sudden, you've got to come up with 200 billion in 2027,
and like in 2032, you've got to come up with 300 billion, just to stay
even for the year.
I mean, are people beginning, around the old nursing station, to
start kind of talking about it yet?
Ms. Downer. I really haven't heard it
around the nurses station yet.
The President. They're going to, after you get back--[laughter]--
aren't they?
Ms. Downer. Oh, yes.
The President. By the way, on the Medicare drugs, we're fixing it.
We got a new system that we put in place to make sure that the seniors
who have trouble affording prescription drugs get help through Medicare.
So they don't have to worry about that anymore, starting next year, by
the way--next year. And it's going to be a great change.
But back to Social Security. So what Marlo
wants to know is whether or not we've got the courage, the political
courage, to take this issue on and solve it. That's what she wants to
know. And what I want to assure you all is that I like calling Congress
to do big things, because that's what we got elected to do. And I'm
going to continue pressing this issue and pressing this issue and
pressing this issue and--until we get something done.
I want to thank you all for your interest. I want to thank you for
your interest. I would tell you, you don't have to worry about
your Senators. They're
forward-thinking people who understand we've got to address this problem
today. They understand that, and I'm looking forward to working with
them on it. I'm looking forward to giving them a ride back to
Washington. [Laughter] I'm looking forward to talking about what they've
heard here. I want to thank you for your time. I want to thank our
panelists for doing such a fabulous job. I appreciate it.
And in the meantime, may God bless you all. Thanks for coming.
Note: The President spoke at 11:50 a.m. in the Pan Am Hangar at Pease
International Tradeport Airport. In his remarks, he referred to W.
Douglas Scamman, speaker,
[[Page 241]]
New Hampshire House of Representatives; Thomas R. Eaton, president, New
Hampshire Senate; Richard M. Flynn, commissioner, New Hampshire
Department of Safety; President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan; and Janet
Norwood, mother of Sgt. Byron Norwood, USMC, who was killed in Iraq on
November 13, 2004, and Iraqi citizen and political activist Safia Taleb
al-Suhail, both of whom were guests of the First Lady at the President's
State of the Union Address on February 2. Participant former
Representative Timothy J. Penny referred to professional golfer Tiger
Woods; and entertainer Jessica Simpson. The Office of the Press
Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.