[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 15 (Monday, April 19, 1999)]
[Pages 640-642]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Universal Savings Accounts Initiative

April 14, 1999

    The President. Thank you very much. Andrew and Theresa and I were 
walking down here, and they were mildly nervous because they don't do 
this every day. But I think you did a very fine job. I want to thank 
them and their three sons for coming. I'd also like to thank Felicia 
Harris and her daughter, Alexis, who came because they're another 
representative family who will be benefited by the USA account proposal.
    I thank Senator Barbara Boxer who is here and has had to stand up 
here alone because all of the House Members who were supposed to be with 
her are back at the House voting, and I appreciate her being here. I 
want to thank Secretary Rubin for his leadership on this issue, along 
with Deputy Secretary Larry Summers and Secretary Shalala and Gene 
Sperling, my national economic counselor.
    You know that we want to talk to you about a major issue relating to 
retirement security in the 21st century. I think it's important to start 
out by saying that this will be a very big deal to a lot more people. We 
all know that the number of people over 65 will double by the year 2030. 
By the year 2050, the average American will live to be 82 years old.
    Now, keep in mind that in 1900, life expectancy was only 47\1/2\ 
years. It took 4,000 years, the majority of all recorded history, to 
make a leap in longevity like the one we have seen in just one century. 
Now, as I get older, I remind everyone that this is a very high-class 
problem, and I like it better as the years go by. They are a precious 
gift.
    President Roosevelt said, ``There is no tragedy in growing old, but 
there is tragedy in growing old without means of support.'' 
Historically, our people have relied upon three basic means of support. 
First, Social Security: It became the basic means of support and still 
alone is responsible for lifting almost half of our senior population 
out of poverty. But it was never supposed to be seniors' only means of 
support. And we see by the fact that the poverty rate among elderly 
single women is twice that of seniors in general what happens when 
Social Security is the only means of support. Pensions are the second, 
and private savings are the third. Retirement, to be truly secure, needs 
a mix of all three.
    Well, how strong are these building blocks for most Americans? 
First, Social Security. It's a rock-solid guarantee, and it has been for 
generations. But for the 18 percent of the seniors, as I said, for whom 
Social Security is their only source of retirement income, life is still 
pretty tough.
    The first thing we have to do is to make sure that Social Security 
will be there for the baby boomers. As I said in my State of the Union 
Address, that's why we ought to set aside 62 percent of the surplus to 
save Social Security and at the same time, as Secretary Rubin said, to 
pay down our national debt.
    We also need to be very mindful that Medicare is quite important not 
only to Social Security recipients, who have that as their only source 
of income, but a lot of other seniors, as well. And we need to set aside 
enough money from the surplus to secure Medicare well into the next 
century.
    Our budget plan pays down the debt and saves Social Security and 
Medicare. I look forward to working with Congress over the coming months 
to make some changes that are necessary to lengthen the life of both the 
Social Security and the Medicare Trust Funds, to maintain our fiscal 
discipline and secure the health of our economy into the 21st century.
    Now, what about the second building block, private pensions? Half of 
all American workers, 73 million of them, have no employer-provided 
pensions whatever. IRA's and 401(k)'s are something they hear and read 
more and more about but don't have for themselves. Currently, only one-
third--listen to this--only one-third of the tax benefits for pensions 
and retirement savings go to families who earn less than $100,000, even 
though they represent the vast majority of working people in the United 
States today.
    The third building block is personal savings. Americans living 
longer than ever and moving from job to job, who may have defined 
contribution rather than defined benefit pension plans, more and more 
will need to increase their personal savings. Our national savings rate 
has doubled over the last

[[Page 641]]

6 years because we're saving more in the Government and not having 
deficits.
    But personal savings has gone down over the last 6 years. Too few 
Americans are saving for their own retirement. For too many Americans, 
the hard work they do to provide for their families today, as you've 
just heard, makes it difficult for them to save for tomorrow. The 
typical family, headed by someone between the ages of 55 and 64, has 
financial assets worth just $32,000. That won't support them very long 
in their retirement. For many Americans, as their lives stretch longer, 
their resources are stretched thinner.
    I believe Americans who work hard their entire lives and raise their 
children should not have to have their retirement poised precariously on 
the edge of poverty. I believe that Americans, however, have to do more 
to save for their own future, but that Americans deserve the chance to 
do that.
    Now, that's what this USA account proposal is all about. It is a 
complete and comprehensive new plan to help Americans with retirement 
savings for the 21st century. It is the right way to provide tax relief 
for the American people, and it is the right way to increase savings and 
strengthen our economy, even as we help families like the ones we honor 
today.
    Now, I proposed in the State of the Union Address setting aside 12 
percent of the surplus to establish these accounts. Let me say 
specifically what I think we ought to do. I propose that Americans be 
given the chance to open, voluntarily, Universal Savings Accounts. I 
propose that workers receive a refundable tax credit if their incomes 
are up to $80,000 a year, deposited directly into their USA accounts, 
and as they save, that the Government help them save further, matching 
their contributions on a sliding scale, depending on income, giving 
extra help to those least able to save.
    Further, I propose that aid be given to people with incomes between 
the incomes of $80,000 and $100,000 a year, but on a reduced basis. And 
even for people with incomes over $100,000 a year, if they have no other 
personal retirement savings or pensions, they should also be eligible 
for this help.
    This would give many, many millions of Americans a new opportunity 
to invest in the growing American economy, to have some wealth and 
security in retirement. It will revolutionize savings not simply for 
older Americans, but especially, perhaps, for younger Americans, from 
their very first days in the work force. With USA accounts, everyone in 
the USA will be able to save----

[At this point, several Members of Congress arrived.]

    The President. ----especially if we get more and more congressional 
support as we go along. [Laughter]
    Now, let me go through the reasons that I believe that this is the 
right way to provide tax relief with the surplus, and I would like to go 
through some very specific things.
    First of all, Universal Savings Accounts do just what the name says, 
they make savings universal. It would be many workers' first, or 
certainly their best, opportunity ever to save. And by rewarding 
responsibility, USA accounts would help set them on the road to further 
savings.
    Second, USA accounts make investment universal. Savings, of course, 
is about more than protecting what you have; it's about creating and 
building greater wealth for a better future. With these accounts, 
working families will have a chance to invest just as wealthier families 
do today. They can choose to invest in an interest-bearing account or a 
stock market mutual fund or a bond fund, just as they would with a 
Government or private pension.
    Third, they make real retirement security universal, extending it 
even to workers with low and moderate incomes who are least likely to be 
offered pensions by their employers and least likely to be able to save 
on their own. As I said earlier--I want to emphasize this again--today, 
only a third of all the tax benefits provided under all the laws of 
Congress of existing retirement plans go to families earning less than 
$100,000.
    You heard what our distinguished speaker said. Listen to this. I 
mean, does this family--these look like the people you want to help, 
right? I mean, they're making America great. Only 7 percent of existing 
tax benefits for retirement go to families with incomes of $50,000 a 
year or less--only 7 percent.

[[Page 642]]

    Our plan more than doubles that. More than 80 percent of the tax 
benefits of USA accounts will go to people making incomes of $100,000 a 
year or less. It's the vast majority of the American people, and it's 
the right thing to do. It is the kind of tax cut America needs, targeted 
toward working families, toward savings, and toward the future.
    USA accounts will add up. For example, if a couple earning $40,000 
saved just $700 a year, matched by the Government, a USA account 
invested conservatively would be worth a quarter of a million dollars 
after 40 years. How many people making $40,000 a year in this country 
today have a quarter of a million dollars in wealth? Think what this 
could do for America.
    That means--let me just say what it means practically--it means that 
a person could retire and, just from this account, living over 80 years, 
have well over $15,000 a year in income during retirement. That's the 
power of savings and compound interest.
    But USA accounts involve more than compound interest. They also add 
up to a larger stake in our society and its future. Families who own 
very few financial assets would now own a share of our Nation's 
prosperity and in the remarkable economic growth they have done so much 
to create. People like Andrew and Theresa, people like Felicia Harris, 
people working hard, raising their children, thinking about their 
children's future, would have their first real chance to save for 
tomorrow while they are working today.
    With USA accounts, we can say to a 25-year-old just starting a 
family, ``You can start to save.'' With these accounts, we can say to 
someone who has made a transition from welfare to work and is watching 
the stock market surge in value, ``You actually can have a stake in this 
wealth you are helping to create.'' We can say to working families, 
``Now you can think about your children's future and your own.''
    So, as I stand here at the end of one century and the dawn of the 
next, and I think about what I would like family life to be like 10, 20, 
30, 40 years from now, one of the things that I want very badly to do is 
to see our wealth more fairly shared by those who create it and to see 
it shared in a way that makes sure that, as we live longer and longer, 
those of us who retire will not pose unconscionable financial burdens 
for our children and their ability to raise our grandchildren.
    Saving Social Security and Medicare is a part of that. Having the 
right sort of tax cut is a part of that. The USA accounts increase 
savings, increase retirement security, and will give millions and 
millions and millions of families who are a big part of this remarkable 
recovery we have enjoyed for the last 6 years--for the first time, those 
people will have a chance to actually own a piece of the American 
recovery they have done so much to create.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 3:09 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Andrew J. Goldschmidt, owner, 
Goldschmidt Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, and his wife, Theresa.