Bush Pushes Social Security Stock Investment Plan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush argued on Thursday for letting Americans invest some of their Social Security taxes in the stock market to increase their retirement savings, an issue Democrats hope to use against Republicans in November elections.
``The generation of wealth should not be limited to a few in our society. It ought to be an opportunity for everybody,'' Bush said at an annual Labor Department national summit on retirement savings.
Democrats see Bush's plan for a partial privatization of Social Security as a disaster and have vowed to stop it, citing the collapse of energy giant Enron Corp. and the stock market drop over the last two years as examples. Thousands of company workers lost their retirement savings as a result of Enron's bankruptcy.
``Social Security is going to face financial challenges as the baby boom generation retires,'' said Rep. Robert Matsui, a California Democrat. ``Republicans are pushing for privatization, which would take money out of the program and make the financial problems worse. Privatization would also lead to massive benefit cuts, and rely on nonexistent general revenues to finance private accounts.''