[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 13 (Monday, March 30, 1998)]
[Pages 480-482]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Satellite Remarks to The Pew Charitable Trusts' ``Americans Discuss 
Social Security''

March 21, 1998

    The President. Thank you. I'd also like to thank Rebecca Rimel. And 
I'm delighted to join The Pew Charitable Trusts and all of you for this 
important discussion of Social Security. The Pew Trust has done a great 
service to the country for making this possible. We have to discuss how 
we can ensure that one of the greatest achievements of this 20th century 
continues to serve our people very well into the next.
    Before I start, let me tell you about--a little bit about my 
upcoming visit to Africa, because tomorrow I'm going to embark on the 
most extensive trip ever taken to that continent by an American 
President, where I hope to introduce Americans to a new Africa, a place 
where democracy and free markets are taking hold. I hope all of you will 
follow my travels closely.
    These are good times for America. We have 15 million new jobs, the 
lowest unemployment in 24 years, the lowest core inflation in 30 years, 
the highest homeownership in our history. Last month I was pleased to 
present the first balanced budget in a generation. Indeed, we can now 
look forward to $1 trillion of surpluses over the next decade. But I 
don't believe we should spend a penny of this surplus until we have 
saved Social Security first for the 21st century.
    I am very pleased with the strong support the American people have 
shown for this meeting and for meeting this challenge. I thank 
``Americans Discuss Social Security'' for leading the way. For 60 years, 
Social Security has meant more than a monthly check in the mail. It 
reflects our deepest values, our respect for our parents, our belief 
that all Americans deserve to retire with dignity.

[[Page 481]]

    We can't break this solemn compact between the generations. And if 
we act soon and responsibly, we can strengthen Social Security in ways 
that won't unfairly burden any generation. So I challenge my own 
generation to act now to protect our children, to ensure that Social 
Security will be there for them after a lifetime of hard work. And I 
challenge young people to do their part, as well, to get involved in our 
national effort to strengthen Social Security for the 21st century.
    In the coming months, the Vice President and I will attend a series 
of nonpartisan forums to help reach a national consensus on how to go 
forward. In December I'll convene a White House Conference on Social 
Security, with a view to early 1999, when I hope and believe we can 
craft historic, bipartisan legislation to save Social Security.
    In the darkest days of the Great Depression, Americans had the 
courage to commit to a daring plan whose impact would not be fully known 
for a generation. In the midst of these prosperous times, we must 
strengthen that commitment for generations yet to come. Your views will 
be vital to our work here in Washington, and I look forward to hearing 
your comments.
    Thank you very much.

[At this point, the discussion began.]

    The President. Let me try to respond a little bit to what all the 
folks said. Obviously, I don't know in the previous meetings exactly how 
much information was out there and how much not. And we're in the 
process, as I said, of a year-long dialog. But let me just offer a 
couple of observations.
    In 1983, there was a bipartisan commission to deal with the problem 
in Social Security. And they came up with a whole set of changes which 
included, very slowly over a period of years, raising the retirement age 
to 67 for people drawing full Social Security benefits, which will 
happen sometime in the next century, because the average life expectancy 
is much longer. When Social Security was enacted and the retirement age 
was 65, the average American did not live to be 65 years old. So that 
happened. Then there was an increase in the payroll tax back in '83, and 
it was estimated that for a period of time Social Security would bring 
in more money than it paid out and that the money could safely be 
pledged, in effect, to buy Government bonds, to finance the deficit. And 
that's what has essentially happened.
    Now, I've done my best to try to turn that situation around by 
getting us back to balance and now moving us into surplus so that we can 
recover some of these funds in the future to deal with the long-term 
challenge of Social Security.
    But here's the basic problem, which I'm sure you understand. In 
2029, all the baby boomers will be 65 or over. Most of them will be in 
the retirement system. At that time, if we continue to work at present 
rates, retire at present rates, and grow our population at present 
rates, there will be only about two people working for every one person 
drawing. Even today, very few people can actually live on only their 
Social Security income. But it's important to remember that, if we 
didn't have Social Security income, nearly half the seniors in this 
country would not be above the poverty line.
    So the trick is how to make this system last beyond 2029 without 
having undue new tax burdens on younger people who are trying to raise 
their children. What options are out there for doing that, and how can 
we also make it easier, as many of you said, to save for your own 
retirement? The one thing I think is very important is that young people 
understand especially what the realities are. I mean, I saw a survey the 
other day that said that some people--a lot of people in their twenties 
thought it was more likely that they would see a UFO than that they 
would ever draw Social Security. Now, that's not accurate. We can easily 
save this system. And we may be able to do a number of things, including 
some of the things that some of you suggested that would give a higher 
rate of return on the investment.
    But under presently conceivable circumstances, no matter what we do 
with the Social Security system, Americans should be saving more for 
their own retirement. So we're working very hard right now to make it 
easier, for example, for more people in small businesses and more self-
employed people to take out 401(k) plans, to take those plans with them 
when they move jobs, to

[[Page 482]]

have a system that would guarantee the security of that kind of 
retirement savings. And we've done a number of things in the last 2 
years; there is some more legislation before Congress now. And some of 
you in these hearings may have even greater ideas about what we can do 
to make it easier for people to save for their own retirement.
    But I always tell people that we actually have two things we have to 
do. We have to secure the safety, the soundness, and the salvation of 
Social Security into the 21st century and look at all the options that 
have been raised here by you. But we also have to educate the American 
people that they must save more for their own retirement, and then we 
have to make it easier for them to do so and to succeed in doing so.
    The last point I'd like to make is this: Because of the reductions 
in the deficit, the reduction in interest rates, we may have already 
added a few years to the life of the Social Security Trust Fund. We can 
put a lot of years on the life of the Fund; we can stabilize the Fund. 
And now that we've eliminated these chronic, huge deficits of the last 
decade and a half, we can set this thing right. And if we can act now, 
meaning early next year, with the support of the American people across 
party lines and regional lines and income lines, we can make modest 
changes today that will have a huge impact in the next century.
    So the last thing I'd like to say to all of you is, one of you said 
that you wanted us to do what we needed to do in a hurry and in a 
nonpartisan, fair way. That's the message I think that all of us need to 
hear, all the Members of Congress, all the members of our 
administration. We do not need to put this off. Many people are afraid 
that anything you do to Social Security is political dynamite. I think 
it's worse dynamite to walk away from a problem when we can solve it 
with discipline, modest, far-sighted actions now that will have a huge 
impact 20 and 30 years from now.
    So I thank you. I was profoundly impressed by what you had to say, 
and I wish I had more time to go through all your questions. I know now, 
in 2 hours, Ken Apfel, our Social Security Administrator, will be on 
this program, and he'll be able maybe to pick up some of the more 
specific questions you asked me and others that you doubtless will have 
for him.
    And again let me thank The Pew Charitable Trusts. This is a 
wonderful public service.

Note: The President spoke at 12:05 p.m. from Room 459 of the Old 
Executive Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to Rebecca Rimel, 
president, The Pew Charitable Trusts.