Friday, April 29, 2005

Press Conference Text of the President

Read the full text -- I'm sorry I missed this conference (I was not only in transit; but I had no idea -- I heard nothing via news about this conference).

I'm giving my two cents here -- The President raised a number of issues. Some are reiterations; and some are a tad more pointed.

I think the big thrust was: social security. And reading through his text, I thought about it in a newer way. It was this quote of his:

One other point on Social Security that people have got to understand is that it's -- the system of today is not fair for a person whose spouse has died early. In other words, if you're a two-working family like families are here in America, and -- two people working in your family, and the spouse dies early -- before 62, for example -- all of the money that the spouse has put into the system is held there, and then when the other spouse retires, he or she gets to choose the benefits from his or her own work, or the other spouse's benefits, which is ever higher but not both. See what I'm saying? Somebody has worked all their life, the money they put into the system just goes away. It seems unfair to me. I've talked to too many people whose lives were turned upside down when the spouse died early and all they got was a burial benefit.

If you have a personal savings account, a voluntary personal savings account, and your -- and you die early, that's an asset you can leave to your spouse or to your children. That's an important thing for our fellow citizens to understand. The system today is not fair, particularly if the spouse has died early, and this will help remedy that.
Okay, you say -- so? We all know this is rotten and has been going on forever and the Dems wanna keep it this way.. what's yer point, Alia?

My point is this: How to stop a runaway corrupt system. In the scenario above, both made investments. If one dies early, those investments go... where? The surviving spouse gets only "one" benefit, of the two. That's wrong, and defiling of the memory of a loved one. This is NOT what a "died-early" spouse would want -- he/she would want that remaining spouse to have the FULL investment (both accounts).

So, instead, we've got congresscritters constantly coming up with "supplements" to aid "surviving, aged spouses", right? So what gets robbed to pay the surviving spouse? More taxes? Yep. And so on.

Looked another way -- the current SS system smells of embezzlement. Can you imagine a corporation surviving a "system" like this? No way! It'd be sued unto oblivion.

2 comments:

MataHarley said...

I caught the last part on the first showing, and more at a second later showing on the cable news channels. They ran it twice out here on the west coast. And I'm sure you can still find it playing on C-Span, Alia.

This President has certainly come into his own, being comfortable with the leader of the free world label. He did a stellar, personal presentation of the issues. Whether or not the WH press corp liked what he had to say, they could not rattle him, trip him up, nor bow him to their will. He's not one out to please the masses, but doggedly sticks to what he believes is correct for the country.

It was, bar none, the most logical explanation of using accounts under control of the individual and seems almost impossible to argue the benefits. Altho that truth will not stop the obstructionist, power deprived, desperate DNC from doing so.

What is most obvious from last night's press conference is the ability of this President to stand in front of those so obviously opposed to his very rank in the nation, still remain civil, polite and on point and... at times... even humourous. This is one down home man who prefers to speak in the common voter's language. A serious contrast to the pompous dialogue used by Kerry and other Congressional politicos.

I wish we could be sure that all Americans saw this press conference. I think they would have no problem understanding the issues, nor fall victim to the DNC cries that the WH is trying to rip of seniors now, or our children's future.

Anonymous said...

sued unto oblivion, indeed..