A man named Dr. Saving is in Iowa today (Thursday), talking about saving Social Security. Tom Saving is a trustee of the Social Security Trust Fund, and he believes it’s time to create those “private accounts” that President Bush has been touting.”I’ve been in favor of personal accounts before the President was ever involved in thinking about them because for a very long time I’ve been in favor of changing this system,” Saving says. “The only real ‘lock box’ you can have in Social Security is a personal account.” Saving says it’s the only way to change the system into what people thought it was — where people send money to the government and it goes into a “little box with their name on it” and then the money is returned to them when they retire. “That never really happened, but that’s what they thought happened and the only way to turn the system into that…is personal accounts,” he says. Saving says Social Security should be regarded as a retirement program and he opposes any move to reduce benefits for wealthier Americans.Saving says no one would accept a reduction in the pension they earned during their career just because they happen to have a higher net worth than other former coworkers. “Social Security is not a welfare system. It’s a retirement system and it just isn’t right to change it from that,” Saving says. Saving is an old English name, and Dr. Saving was named for his grandfather — Thomas Robert Saving — who was an Anglican priest. While his grandfather saved souls, this modern-day Thomas Saving says he is trying to save Social Security.Saving is director of the Private Enterprise Research Center at Texas A-and-M. There’s no official confirmation, but some sources indicate President Bush himself may soon visit Iowa to talk about his Social Security plans. Dr. Saving spoke today (Thursday) in Cedar Rapids.
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