When president Bush stepped in the White House in 2001, the national budget showed a surplus of $236 billion and it was expected to grow up to $5.6 trillion by 2011. But things changed after that. The war in Iraq, the fight against terrorism, three tax cuts all led to deficit of $413 billion by the end of last fiscal year.
In a speech made on Saturday President Bush said that Social Security is "on the road to bankruptcy. If we do not act now, government will eventually be left with two choices: dramatically reduce benefits or impose a massive, economically ruinous tax increase." President Bush has now an aggressive plan to change the scenario.
Bush believes that younger workers should be given the opportunity to invest in a personal retirement account as part of the 6.2% of income, which otherwise goes as Social Security payroll taxes.
"Unlike Social Security benefits, which can be taken away by politicians, the money in a personal account would be yours. And unlike the money you put into Social Security today, the money in personal accounts would grow," said Bush. Exactly how this money will be routed is not yet clear.
Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution said, "This is a president who has set out to have a second-term agenda, which, in many ways, is more vigorous, if not more radical and certainly more controversial than his first-term agenda."
Bush in a way is attempting to change something that is bedrock and it is bound to affect culture and the mindset of Americans. Overall the new agenda leading to changes in the system seems to be favoring business more than his agenda in first term.
