SOCIAL SECURITY
Bush proposed individual retirement accounts that would allow workers to shift up to one-third of their Social Security payroll taxes into stock market investments.
He did not say how his plan would make up for the short-fall in revenues such a shift would create, the “transition costs” estimated at $2.2 trillion over just the first 10 years.
Bush warned of a Social Security system “collapsing” before today’s youth retire, saying that by the year 2042, “the entire system would be exhausted and bankrupt.”
Social Security does face long-term shortfalls, but Bush paints a starker picture than most projections suggest.
GOVERNMENT SPENDING
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Bush said American prosperity “requires restraining the spending appetites of the federal government.”
But in his four years as president, Bush has presided over a dramatic expansion of federal spending and has never vetoed a spending bill from Congress. The federal deficit for 2004 was a record $412 billion. When Bush took office in 2001, the federal budget had a $236 billion surplus.
WAR IN IRAQ
Bush hailed the courage of Iraqis who defied insurgent threats and voted by the millions in elections Sunday.
He avoided any mention of the weapons of mass destruction upon which he built his case for war two years ago, or the fact that no such weapons have ever been found.
HEALTH CARE
The president threw his support behind congressional proposals to provide Americans greater access to health-care insurance through tax credits and health savings accounts.
Economists have questioned whether such an approach would be adequate. The ranks of the uninsured have grown 24 percent, to 44.7 million, since 2000, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.