Social Security, anti-terror war top Bush's second term

US President George W. Bush on Wednesday used his first State of the Union address since re-election to sell his plan for overhauling Social Security and stress the need to stay the course in Iraq.

Eager to leave behind some notable legacies, Bush vigorously pushed for a partial privatization of Social Security and intensified efforts in the global anti-terrorism war -- the two major goals of his second term.

SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM TOPS DOMESTIC AGENDA

Bush evenly divided his speech to a joint session of the congress between domestic policy and foreign affairs. The first half of his speech touched issues like the economy, employment, tax cuts and deficits, but was mainly devoted to the hotly debated proposal of revamping Social Security.

Bush said the Social Security system, created 70 years ago by the then Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression, "is headed toward bankruptcy."

As Americans are living longer, the benefits they draw will rise dramatically over the next few decades, outpacing the growth of Social Security, Bush said.

In 2018, Social Security will be paying out more than it takes in and the entire system would be "exhausted and bankrupt" by 2042, he said.

To fix the system, Bush suggested putting a portion of a worker's Social Security tax into a private account to invest in stocks and bonds. The money in the account would grow at a greater rate than the current system can deliver and can be passed along from generations to generations, he said.

As a compromising gesture to those who oppose his proposal, Bush promised in the speech that workers currently 55 and older would stay in the current system, with their benefits unchanged.

He also laid out "careful guidelines" for personal accounts. For example, the money in those accounts can only go into a conservative mix of bonds and stock funds and good options should be available to protect investments from sudden market swings.

Bush, under pressure to bring down the country's colossal twin deficits -- in both current account and federal budget, had promised to take measures to fix the long-term fiscal problems.

Bush proposed changes to Social Security when he ran his first presidential campaign in 2000, but was unable to carry out his plan in the past four years because of the Sept. 11 attacks and subsequent US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Analysts say the overhaul plan, if approved by the congress, would have a long-term impact on the country's politics. As the current Social Security system has been long associated with the Democrats, the Republican-sponsored reforms to the system would weaken the Democratic Party both politically and financially.

On the other hand, if Democrats successfully scupper the White House's plan, they would surely benefit from the victory in the mid-term elections in 2006, analysts say.

ANTI-TERROR WAR REMAINS FOCUS OF FOREIGN POLICY

On foreign and security affairs, Bush talked about the Middle East, particularly the peace process between the Palestinians and Israel, Iran, Iraq, the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula and weapons of mass destruction. But the major issue was the anti-terror war.

One of the government's responsibilities was to leave future generations "an America that is safe from danger and protected by peace," he said.

The United States was still a target of terrorists, and pursuing terrorists remained a "vital commitment of the war on terror."

"We will stay on the offensive against them until the fight is won," he said.

Speaking three days after the election in Iraq, Bush stressed the need to stay the course there. He said the new political situation in Iraq "opens a new phase of our work in that country,"and the United States would focus its efforts on helping train more capable Iraqi security forces.

As expected, Bush refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of the roughly 150,000 US troops from Iraq, saying that would "embolden the terrorists and make them believe they can wait us out."

Bush also vowed to help push the stalled Middle East peace, saying the establishment of a Palestinian state was "within reach."

He said he would ask the congress to approve an aid package of 350 million dollars for the Palestinians to support their political, economic and security reforms.

Bush said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would tour Europe, Israel and the West Bank for discussions on the Middle East peace process.

In sharp contrast, Bush issued strong warnings to Iran and Syria, demanding that they stop their alleged support for terror.

Billing Iran as the "world's primary state sponsor of terror," Bush said Washington is "working with European allies to make clear to the Iranian regime that it must give up its uranium enrichment program and any plutonium reprocessing, and end its support for terror."

Bush also reached out to America's allies, saying his administration would "continue to build the coalition that will defeat the dangers of our time."

He said the United States is working closely with governments in Asia on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula.

COLD RESPONSE FROM DEMOCRATS

While Republicans expressed enthusiasm and admiration after Bush's speech, top Democrats assaulted Bush's touted themes of reforming Social Security and staying in Iraq.

"The Bush plan isn't really Social Security reform, it's more like Social Security roulette," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada rebuked in his response to Bush's address.

"There's a lot we can do to improve America's retirement security, but it's wrong to replace the guaranteed benefit the Americans have earned with a guaranteed benefit cut of up to 40 percent," Reid said. He said Democrats had more than enough votes to block Bush's proposal.

Democrats argue that individual accounts would add to the federal deficit and force at least temporary cuts in Social Security benefits. They say the plan is a wrong solution for a system not in crisis.

Some Republican lawmakers facing re-election in 2006 also expressed doubts about Bush's plan, worrying it would have negative implications for their re-election bid.

Bush's Iraq policy also drew fierce fire from Democrats. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi criticized Bush for failing to spell out a plan for leaving Iraq, where US soldiers keep being gunned down and violence continues raging after the Jan. 30 parliamentary elections.

"We have never heard a clear plan from this administration for ending our presence in Iraq, and we did not hear one tonight," she said.

The United States "cannot stay in Iraq indefinitely and continue to be viewed as an occupying force," Pelosi said.

Source: Xinhua