WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said on Thursday he planned to start work immediately on reforming America's ailing Social Security retirement system and predicted a long slog ahead.
"We will start on Social Security now. We will start bringing together those in Congress who agree with my assessment that we need to work together," he said in his first news conference after the bitterly contested presidential election.
Bush said reforming Social Security would be a priority during his second term and he predicted it would be very tough and costly.
"But the cost of doing nothing ... is much greater than the cost of reforming the system today," he added.
Bush said he had talked to members of his staff on Thursday and they were planning strategy on how to "move agendas forward" and to do this effectively.
The future of Social Security and the financial strains it faces when 77 million baby boomers begin to retire was a major issue in this year's presidential elections.
One of the things I really like about President Bush is that when something is going to be "tough and costly" he usually tells us as much. Not a lot of people like hearing about how difficult its going to be to deal with the social security problem. That's probably why our politicians have been ignoring it (except while making campaign promises) for over a decade now. Maybe longer. It seems like Bush is finally aiming at fixing it.
The President is supporting a plan where citizens would be allowed to invest the money they pay into social security. What are your thoughts on that plan? Do you have a better one?