Bush Budget Privatizes Social Security

Last year, the president's drive to privatize Social Security barely made it past his staged, campaign-style, invitation-only events. Americans overwhelmingly rejected his proposals and legislation never made it to Congress.

But President Bush, who vowed he would push for private accounts until his last day in office, brazenly inserted privatization into his 2007 budget proposal. The Bush budget makes absolutely no mention of the bi-partisan study on entitlements he proposed in his State of the Union address. Instead, the budget outlines a big, expensive privatization plan that would divert $712 billion from Social Security's Trust Fund into private accounts.

"Talk is cheap, privatization is not," said George J. Kourpias, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans. "The president has made it clear he has no intention of compromising on Social Security. Privatization is a roadblock to addressing Social Security's long-term challenges. We defeated the president's 2005 plans to privatize, and we'll beat back this year's plans as well."