LAT: A Hard Sell in Bush's Neighborhood

[NoPasaran]

WACO, Texas — If President Bush's Social Security initiative is going to ring bells anywhere, it ought to be a hit with the Better Investment Group of Waco, which meets once a month at Uncle Dan's Rib House to discuss earnings growth over barbecue and beans.

The group, which calls itself the BIG club, is dedicated to the proposition that individual investors can and should profit handsomely from putting some of their savings into the stock market.

That's exactly what Bush is proposing as part of his still-emerging plan for addressing Social Security's funding problems. Younger workers, he says, should be able to divert a portion of their payroll taxes into personal accounts containing stock and bond mutual funds. In return, their traditional Social Security benefits would be trimmed. But the personal accounts would build up over time, Bush says, and would supplement traditional benefits on retirement. Yet here in Bush's central Texas stamping ground — his Crawford ranch is nearby — some BIG members have misgivings about the president's proposal.

"I'm on Social Security, and it's probably the best investment I've ever made," said the club's president, 75-year-old Maurice Labens. "As long as I live I'll have some income from it, even if I live to be 150. I'd hate to see that get messed up."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-waco3apr03.story

[Frances]

1. But it's the Dems fault

They don't have a plan! (Sarcasm.)

I can't believe that at last the public is beginning to have some suspicions about that good Christian George W. Bush.

Bush is no Christian and he's certainly no one to be giving financial advice.

Everything he touches turns to ashes.