| Bush - Gore Debate: Money | |
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Experts like Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan say the Social Security system will not survive without either reducing benefits paid, or increasing payroll taxes collected. Moderator Lehrer asked the candidates how they would save Social Security.
GORE: I will keep Social Security in a lockbox, and that pays down the national debt. And the interest savings, I would put right back into Social Security. That extends the life of Social Security for 55 years.
Gore criticized Bush's proposal to allow some workers to invest one out of every six dollars of payroll taxes in the stock market instead of putting it into Social Security.
GORE: The governor wants to divert one out of every six dollars off into the stock market, which means that he would drain $1 trillion out of the Social Security trust fund over the -- in this generation -- over the next 10 years. And Social Security, under that approach, would go bankrupt within this generation. His leading adviser on this plan actually said that would be OK, because then the Social Security trust fund could start borrowing. It would borrow up to $3 trillion.
Gore stated that he would veto, "anything that takes money out of Social Security for privatization or anything else other than Social Security."
Bush criticized Gore for attacking his plan, but not really having a plan of his own.
BUSH: Well, I thought it was interesting on the two minutes he spent about minute and a half on my plan, which means he doesn't want you to know that what he's doing is loading up IOUs for future generations. He puts no real assets in the Social Security system.
Bush also restated his proposal to allow younger workers to make private investments with part of their payroll taxes, rather than paying it all into Social Security.
BUSH: I want you to have your own asset that you can call your own. I want you to have an asset that you can pass on from one generation to the next. I want to get a better rate of return for your own money than the paltry 2 percent that the current Social Security trust gets today.
From Their Past Policy
Statements
Outside last night's debate, here are what the candidates have stated on
Social Security:
Gore would: Use $2.2 trillion of the Social Security surplus to protect the program and pay down the national debt. Interest saved by reducing the debt would go back into Social Security, thus ensuring its solvency until 2050 and beyond.
Bush would: Eliminate the Social Security earnings limit. Oppose increasing the existing 12.4 percent payroll tax.
Gore would: Create "Retirement Savings Plus Accounts," which would operate like traditional IRAs and 401(k) plans, but allow tax deductible contributions of up to $2,000 per year.
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