Eddie Konczal, Published in The Cranbury Press on 05/13/2005

George W. Bush held a press conference on April 28 to promote his Social Security plan. Unfortunately, the only new idea President Bush offered was a thinly disguised benefit cut for anyone earning over $20,000.

President Bush flip-flopped during the press conference by first calling T-bills "worthless IOUs," then calling them safe investments when promoting them as a personal account option. President Bush actually lied by saying that Social Security would be bankrupt by 2042 (it won't — it just might not pay 100 percent of promised benefits).

Worst of all, President Bush continues to insist that Social Security must include private accounts, while failing to provide a rationale for them. Social Security was designed to protect Americans' savings from the risk of the stock market, not to introduce more risk into our retirement plans.

Social Security has worked successfully for 70 years, never missing a single payment since its inception in 1935. The system will remain solvent with minor adjustments, similar to those that the plan's trustees enacted in the early 1980s. We cannot allow President Bush to radically overhaul a system than only needs some fine-tuning.