GeorgeWBush.com :: Agenda for America – Chapter 3
# No Changes in Benefits For Current Retirees and Near-Retirees – For those already in or near retirement, promises made must be promises kept.
# Voluntary Personal Retirement Accounts for Younger Workers – These personal accounts would give workers ownership, control, and the opportunity to use their Social Security payroll taxes to build a nest egg for retirement that can be passed on to their families.
# No Increases in the Social Security Payroll Tax – The President has stated that we cannot tax our way to fixing Social Security.
These three are so closesly linked you have to look at them together. The big commitments to 1) not increase the payroll tax and 2) not renege on commitments already made are important. I love the idea of putting at least part of my Social Security money in an account I control, but I know the political reality that Democrats present any suggestion of doing something like that as a threat to those who are retired or near retirement. Bush is explicilty committing not to touch current benefits in those cases.