Social Security: A crisis?
News media briefing
Feb. 1, 2005
National Press Club
Listen to an audio webcast of the briefing.
Academy Senior Pension Fellow Ron Gebhardtsbauer briefed the news media on options for Social Security reform at the National Press Club in Washington Feb. 1.
Gebhardtsbauer provided an actuarial perspective on the issue, which is at the top of President Bush's second-term domestic agenda and a central topic in his Feb. 2 State of the Union address.
More than a dozen reporters and public policy and industry representatives attended the briefing, including reporters from USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and the BNA news service.
Gebhardtsbauer explained that the challenge for the president and Congress is to meet the demands of a Baby Boom generation that will begin retiring in 2008, placing a historic demand on Social Security. Saying that Social Security is facing a "crisis," the Bush administration is proposing that individuals be given the choice of investing a portion of their own contributions to the program in personal accounts.
In the briefing, Gebhardtsbauer talked about the financial and demographic challenges facing the system and reviewed the options for reform. He also discussed the analytical tools actuaries use to evaluate the impact of various reform proposals.
Materials distributed at the briefing:
Need more info?
If you're a journalist and you need information from the Academy or want to arrange an interview, please contact Tracey Young (young@actuary.org; 202-785-7872), the Academy's media relations manager.
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