http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-social7dec07.story White House Says Social Security Fix Means Borrowing
Analysts put the figure at $1 trillion over a decade. Bush officials offer no amount, but say not restructuring would cost more.
By Warren Vieth and Janet Hook
Times Staff Writers
December 7, 2004
WASHINGTON — The federal government would have to borrow money over the next decade to finance President Bush's plan to create private Social Security accounts, the White House acknowledged Monday.
Independent analysts have estimated the government would initially need to borrow more than $1 trillion. The administration declined to provide its own figure, but said that if the program was not restructured to handle the coming wave of baby-boom retirees, the cost would be $10 trillion. "There will be some up-front transition financing that will be needed to move toward a better system," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
The acknowledgment, the most explicit yet by White House officials, came as Bush launched a campaign to build bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for allowing workers to divert some of their Social Security taxes into individually controlled private accounts. The idea is likely to be the most difficult domestic policy initiative of his presidency.
In a meeting with congressional leaders of both parties, the president conceded that his vision for Social Security would require significant short-term (40 year) borrowing, according to a participant in the closed-door session.<snip>
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