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Spotlight
By John Toscano

Bush Panel Offers Several Social Security Stock Accounts

President George W. Bush set up the Commission on Social Security to devise a plan for investing individual Social Security benefit funds in stocks and bonds. The commission is due to complete its work next month but, according to reports, has not settled on a single plan to achieve its stated goal.

Instead, the commission’s co-chairman said last week that the panel would present a number of alternative plans to achieve Bush’s goal of creating personal investment accounts rather than present a single proposal.

The commission chairman, former United States Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, and Richard D. Parsons, co-chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner, said that presenting several proposals would give Congress and the public a chance to study different approaches to initiating the radical change in the Social Security system.

Opponents of the president’s plan said the Moynihan–Parsons decision shows that Bush isn’t so sure how he wants to proceed with the plan. It also shows how in the post-September 11 climate, with the nation at war, the president isn’t in the best position to get into a major battle with Congress and the public.

Another factor influencing the go-slow approach is the congressional elections slated for next year. The president must be wary of how presenting such a radical plan might impact on the Republican Party’s chances. Traditionally, the party in power loses ground in the first national elections after a president has taken office. Since Republicans have a very narrow majority in Congress and the Democrats already control the Senate, Bush and the Republicans could wind up with the Democrats in firm control of both houses for 2003 and 2004, not an encouraging prospect for the president who will probably be seeking a second term in 2004.

The problem facing the president on initiating private investment accounts is that they may require Social Security members to give up the guaranteed monthly benefit they now have in return for the right to invest some of their benefits on Wall Street.

WTC ATTACKS LEAVES MORE KIDS PARENTLESS: In a recent release, city Department for the Aging Commissioner Herbert Stupp revealed that following the September 11 World Trade Center attacks there is every indication that many additional children were left parentless, leaving grandparents or other relatives to raise them. Stupp urged anyone who knows of such a situation to call the Grandparent Resource Center at the Department for the Aging at (212) 442-1192 during business hours.

The agency assists grandparents who are raising children, advising them on how to deal with situations involving legal custody, guardianship, foster care and kinship foster care alternatives.

ALZHEIMER’S FORUM: To learn something about Alzheimer’s disease, attend the New York City Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association meeting on Monday, December 10. "Coping With Alzheimer’s Disease: Early, Middle and Late Stages" will be discussed. The meeting will be held at 360 Lexington Ave. in Manhattan, between East 40th and 41st Sts., fifth floor, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Registration is required. To register, call the New York City chapter office at (212) 983-0700. All meetings are free of charge.

HEAP: Senior citizen homeowners and tenants in low-income families who reside in the general Jackson Heights area can get HEAP assistance to pay fuel and utility costs. Call the Jackson Heights Community Development Corporation (CDC) at (718) 458-3600 if you are 60 years of age or older, are the head of a household and receive Social Security Disability, or you live alone or with a spouse only and receive SSI Code. Apply early because there are limited funds available. HEAP is funded by the state and city Offices for the Aging.