Vice president Albert Gore, Democratic candidate for president, denounced the announcement, saying it put individuals' pensions at risk.

Both candidates raise the specter of the government-financed pension system going broke and argue that a radical shift is needed. They portray Social Security solely as a retirement plan, rather than a cradle-to-grave plan to provide a minimum security to working people. This would include pensions, disability benefits, coverage for spouses and dependents if disabled or in case of death, and Medicare coverage in case of retirement or disability.

Gore advocates using the current Social Security surplus to pay down the national government debt, then using interest saved to keep the system solvent.

In making his announcement Bush made it clear this was just a beginning. He said he wants to change Social Security to "a system where personal savings accounts are the predominant part of the investment vehicle. And so, this is a step toward a completely different world and an important step."

Playing on fears of younger workers and middle-class layers, and attempting to pit them against an older generation, Bush claimed the Social Security system will face bankruptcy as the "baby boom" generation begins to retire. Younger workers face a "lifetime of paying taxes for benefits they may never receive," he said.

The Republican candidate said the stock markets have proved to be "the best and safest way to build personal wealth." He also broached the idea of shifting away from Medicare to a range of private health insurance plans.

The debate on Social Security has also been prominent in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in New Jersey. There, multimillionaire Jon Corzine, a former chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Company, advocates the government invest part of the Social Security Trust Fund in the stock market. U.S. president William Clinton floated this proposal earlier in his administration. Former New Jersey governor James Florio, the other Democratic senatorial candidate, said the scheme was a risky one that threatened to send elderly people "to the poorhouse."

Social Security was a concession by the employers and their government in Washington to the rising industrial union movement in the United States.

It encompassed the first federally guaranteed universal unemployment benefits and the first guaranteed disability compensation, as well as Aid to Families with Dependent Children.

Subsequent social struggles, such as the battle for Black rights in the 1950s and '60s, forced extension of Social Security to include health benefits such as Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for workers with very low incomes.  
 
 
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