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高级口译阅读教程 第一篇 social security :is there really a crisis?
social security is a long way from bankrupt, despite the president's assertions. why, then, is bush taking on American's biggest , most successful social program ever?
-------------BY Karen Tumulty and Eric Roston
Free-marker crusader (改革者）Stephen Moore learned over the years that the quickest way to bring an abrupt end to a conversation was to mention two words:Social security.he remembers a white house meeting in the mid-1980s at which he raised the idea of overhauling the program- the U.S.'s federally funded pension program-as a way to cut the deficit. a top reagan administration official pretended to have suddenly gone deaf. years later, moore brought it up as newt gingrich and his wrecking crew were drafting the contract with america, which would be their manifesto for taking over the house of representatives. again, no sale."it was one thing every republican said was off the table-even these revolutionary republicans" moore recalls. so he was more than a little shocked when he went to austin in 1999 to meet the texas governor, who was putting together a presidential campaign, and george bush himself brought up social security--not just tinkering with the program but making the most radical change of all."i just want you to know ,"bush told moore,"that i"m really committed to these private investment accounts.
it turns out he meant it.As Bush takes the oath of office and begins his second term this week, he is preparing to bet his presidential legacy on the very issue that Republicans have been doing their best to avoid for decades.Transforming Social Security is Bush's biggest domestic political gamble---audacious even for a president who prides himself on audaciousness----and one that could reshape far more than a single government program.Those who reshape far more than a single government program.
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