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Bush Social Security Plan Would Not Fully Close Financing Gap; President aims to sway wary public, Congress, but lacks easy answers.(A)
Byline: JED GRAHAM
President Bush sought to shake up the Social Security debate Thursday night by touting a plan to protect low earners' benefits by enacting steep cuts for high earners.
The idea would ensure that people who work hard won't retire in poverty and would "solve most of the funding challenges facing Social Security," Bush said.
The prime-time news conference afforded him a second chance to take his ideas for reforming Social Security straight to a national audience in a bid to lift at-best lukewarm public support. Bush used the opportunity to try and dispel fears raised by critics of his agenda and to at least partly fill in one of the biggest blanks in his Social Security plan -- how he would restore solvency.
"A variety of options are available to solve the rest of the problem, and I will work with Congress on any good-faith proposal that does not raise the payroll tax rate or harm our economy," Bush said.
The White House later released a fact sheet saying the progressive benefit formula backed by the president would solve about 70% of Social Security's financing shortfall.
That may underestimate the challenge ahead, experts said. That is because any Social Security legislation may well have to meet two tests: restoring the program to sustainable solvency and wiping out its $4.1 trillion, 75-year shortfall.
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