WASHINGTON — President Bush said Thursday that he was determined to send a message to Congress, Wall Street and the American people that fixing Social Security's long-term cash shortfall was as crucial as reducing budget deficits and addressing other, more immediate problems.
Wrapping up a two-day economic conference, Bush made an aggressive sales pitch for restructuring the New Deal-era retirement program by letting younger workers open private investment accounts, an approach that would widen the federal deficit for a decade or more before long-term savings began to accrue.
"The crisis is now," Bush said, previewing the message he promised to deliver to members of Congress in January. "You may not feel it, your constituents may not be overwhelming you with letters demanding a fix, but the crisis is now."
Bush's partial privatization plan was roundly applauded by the carefully screened participants at the economic conference, but it had the opposite effect on interest groups that announced they were banding together to lobby against Bush's plans.
"The fight against privatizing Social Security will be the fight of our lives," said George Kourpias, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, one of several groups that said they were not invited to present their views at the White House conference. "Privatization will destroy Social Security."
The exchanges set the stage for what is expected to be one of the most contentious issues confronting next year's Congress. Bush has elevated Social Security restructuring to the top of his domestic policy agenda, and the issue has become an ideological battleground between defenders of the traditional government safety net and advocates of the administration's "ownership society" agenda.
Many analysts agree that the Social Security system faces a serious cash-flow deficit in the years ahead as members of the baby boom generation retire and benefits escalate faster than revenues.
But they disagree sharply over the severity of the crisis and the merits of proposed solutions for eliminating the shortfall.
Social Security's board of trustees, which comprises three federal officials and three knowledgeable private citizens, estimates that benefits will overtake revenue in 2018. The program will be able to pay scheduled benefits only by drawing down its surplus.
