Retirement Plan Not Budgeted

WASHINGTON — President Bush won’t include the cost of his plan to create private retirement accounts under Social Security in next year’s budget, White House Budget Director Josh Bolten said Friday.

Bush is pressing Congress to pass legislation this year to let younger workers invest part of their Social Security payroll tax in stocks and bonds.

Since the same tax dollars fund benefits for current retirees, Bush’s plan will cost $1 trillion to $2 trillion in its first 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office says.

While that cost will add to the nation’s deficit, Americans should view it as “transition financing,” not “new costs,” Bolten said. “This is money the government already will owe” to future retirees, he told an audience of business and government representatives at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. The president’s proposals “are still in the working stages,” Bolten said.

Arguing that other costs are only vaguely known, Bush budget writers may also leave out funds needed to cover the additional costs of the war in Iraq, administration officials say.