ABSTRACT
Throughout the 1990s, many bills were introduced in Congress to allow Social Security participants to direct some portion of their payroll tax contributions to personal accounts that they would own. The quest for fundamental Social Security reform gained a powerful backer with the election of George W. Bush in 2000. This chapter discusses Bush‘s efforts to give individuals more freedom to select assets that would fund their retirement. It focuses on the 2001 report of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security and analyzes three key issues raised by fundamental reform that would place more emphasis on choice and personal responsibility.
