Official Denies Social Security Reports

President Bush is still thinking about what he wants to do to shore up the United States’ retirement income security program.[@@]

Recent press reports have suggested that Bush will be proposing that Social Security base future benefit increases on changes in the Consumer Price Index, rather than on changes in wages.

Because wages tend to go up faster than inflation, the change could lead to big cuts in the purchasing power of future retirees’ Social Security benefits, experts say.

Press reports also have suggested that the government might let each worker shift as much as $1,300 in annual Social Security payroll taxes into a private account.

But Scott McClellan, the president’s press secretary, said today at a press briefing that Bush continues to want to move forward on Social Security reform in a “bipartisan way.”