In a speech on the economy and budget at the White House yesterday, President Bush talked about the problems facing our entitlement programs.  "The health of these programs...is in serious jeopardy," Bush said, pledging that he and Treasury Secretary Paulson will work to "solve these entitlement programs once and for all."  

Read an excerpt of the speech below.  Click here for the entire transcript.

"We've made good progress, as I mentioned to you, in getting the fiscal house in order, but there's another problem with our budget, and that has to do with mandatory spending, particularly with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These are really important programs. They're called entitlement programs because when each of us retire we're entitled to a benefit, in Social Security for example.

And yet the health of these programs -- the health is in serious jeopardy. Why? Because there's a lot of people like me and Paulson who are fixing to retire. (Laughter.) As a matter of fact, both of us reach retirement age at the same time, which is in 2008. That's quite convenient in my case. (Laughter.)

But unlike the previous generation, there's a lot more of us, and we've been promised greater benefits than the previous generation. In other words, the government has made promises with a future generation's money that we can't keep. And so the fundamental question facing the government in Washington, D.C. is: Will we have the will necessary to deal with these entitlement programs to leave behind a better budget picture to deal with the unfunded liabilities and the mandatory programs for future generations?

One reason Secretary Paulson came to work in this administration is because he wanted to understand whether or not we were committed to continue trying to bring Social Security reform, to modernize the system. Look, you don't have to cut benefits. You've just got to slow the rate at which benefits are growing in order to make sure a future generation is not strapped with a budgetary system that is unaffordable.

And I assured -- I assured Hank that I was deeply committed to working to solve Social Security, because I believe the call for those of us who are blessed to be in public service is to confront problems now. It's so much easier to quit and just say, let's let another Congress deal with it. The problem is, is that the longer we wait, the more costly it becomes for future Congresses. And so now is the time. Now is the time. And Hank and I are going to -- after these elections come and go, we're going to work with the leaders, and to say, we're all responsible for getting something done. My hope is, in the last two years of this administration, we can set aside needless politics and focus on what's right for the United States of America and solve these entitlement programs once and for all. (Applause.)"

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