August 14th, 2006

August 11th, 2006

The Bush administration has begun sounding out lawmakers and other key figures about mounting a new bipartisan effort to rein in the costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security after the midterm elections, according to officials in the administration and on Capitol Hill. . . The new Treasury secretary, former Goldman Sachs chief Henry M. Paulson Jr., has made it clear that a major reason he took the job is to tackle the rising cost of government health and Social Security spending, which he described last week as "the biggest economic issue facing our country."

. . .some administration officials and lawmakers are hopeful that the partisan wars may recede after the November balloting, that the public is eager for practical solutions -- and that there could be a small window to try again before the 2008 presidential campaign reaches full bloom. "It's a limited opportunity, but it's one that [Bush] is interested in," said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), chairman of the Budget Committee. "I have spoken to him innumerable times about this, and he's engaged. . . . He wants to move in this area."

August 10th, 2006

August 09th, 2006

August 08th, 2006

I’ve come to the Atlanta Press Club to talk to influential Georgians about a subject that can be made extremely boring because it deals with numbers, and it’s called Social Security. But I want to do it, because I have a sincere interest in seeing to it that this debate goes beyond those who just pick it apart before it starts, and really goes on to looking at the future not only for the betterment of our families, but for our children and our grandchildren – and understanding that change is not a bad thing. It’s like my wife always said, “Okay, change is fine; you change first.” That’s the way the world is – no one wants to be the first one to change. The human reaction to change is a natural fear, but most everything in America that has happened for the betterment of healthcare, government, education and American enterprise has been born in change. Change is not in and of itself, a bad thing. Now here are the ground rules: for those of you that want research, you go to socialsecurity.gov, savingsocialsecurity.gov, you go to “compound interest” on Google, and pull of the first website on Annuities, Compound Interest, and the rule of 70 seconds. Or, you go to the United States Government website on the United States Senate and pull up all my financial disclosure statements. It’s from those resources that I’m going to talk to you today. So you can go check everything I’m telling you. I’m not going to use hypothetical examples to sell you a thing.

Now I went to Congress in 1999, and when I did, I took money that I had and I put it in an account and I said I’m not going to touch this – I’m on a fixed income, I’m no longer a salesman and I need to be prudent in what I do. I put that aside in 1999 in a managed account. Over the next six years, I didn’t add any money to it, nor did I take any money out of it – it was there to grow. It was managed by a company here in Atlanta, based on a very conservative approach that I took, based on the fact that I’d be 60 one day, which I am now. Between 1999 and shortly after 9/11, 2001, that account lost 38 percent of its value. Today that account is about where it was in 1996 before it went through a decline in the market. And you can test any other company or brokerage house and they’ll give you these windows where they did real good. But the fact of the matter is, most everybody went down somewhere between 30 and 40 percent and most everybody is back to where they were if they stayed the course and took advantage of the time-value of money. Over the same six year period, I was investing in the Thrift Savings Plan. And starting with zero in 1999, and putting aside $10,000 a year over six years, I have an account in managed funds that’s worth $91,000. Now you ask yourself, wait a minute – if this account you had went down 38 percent, yet the one you’re investing to, you put $60,000 in six years – well how can that be? Well how it can be is the following: if you’re self-directing on a monthly basis, you’re dollar cost averaging in the market. When I was in Thrift Savings Plan, I was buying in the down years as well as the good years. So I was profiting in the days when it was cheap, post 9/11. And over a broad period of time, that’s the way it works.

August 01st, 2006

"I have always tried to live by the philosophy that when there is a big problem that needs fixing, you should run towards it, rather than away from it...

July 27th, 2006