White House: Social Security Reform to Push Debt

[Judi Lynn]

White House: Social Security Reform to Push Debt
February 09, 2004 1:58:00 PM ET



By Adam Entous

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush's economic advisers said on Monday adding personal retirement accounts to Social Security would sharply increase the nation's debt for the next three decades.

Tapping the bond markets to pay for private accounts proposed by Bush's Social Security Commission would increase the nation's debt-to-GDP ratio by up to 23.6 percentage points in 2036, the White House Council of Economic Advisers said in its annual Economic Report of the President.

Under this scenario, the debt held by the public would increase by as much as $4.7 trillion. But the new government bonds would be repaid 20 years later, eliminating Social Security's unfunded liability while reducing the tax burden in the long term, advocates say.

``The economic report illustrates that the long-term fiscal position of the government would improve if Social Security reform were enacted,'' said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan. She said the administration has ``not selected a single approach or a single plan. ... We've made no decisions about how the transition to personal accounts would be financed.''
(snip/...)

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/breaking/breakingnewsarticle.asp?feed=OBR&Date=20040209&ID=3373079

Sorry, I just saw this subject was covered in a post by dARKeR:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=354264

[Beetwasher]

1. Dumbasses

Keep it coming you morons...

[RobertSeattle]

2. Well Duhhh

Even if you believe privitazation would work, the transition costs are CONVSERVATIVELY at $1 Trillion (That $1,000,000,000,000). It's kind of like changing the tax code drastically - might be a nice idea but the devil is in the transition.