The President's news conference

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, May 2, 2005

See, the U.N. needs reform. If you're interested in reforming the U.N., like I'm interested in reforming the U.N., it makes sense to put somebody who's skilled and who is not afraid to speak his mind at the United Nations.

Now, I asked John during the interview process in the Oval Office, I said, "Before I send you up there to the Senate, let me ask you something: Do you think the United Nations is important?" See, I didn't want to send somebody up there who said, "It's not worth a darn. I don't think I need to go." He said, "No, it's important, but it needs to be reformed."

And I think the United Nations is important. As a matter of fact, I'll give you an example. Today I met with the United Nations representative to Syria, Mr. Larsen. He's an impressive fellow. Now, he's delivered--to Lebanon, excuse me--he's delivered a very strong message to the Syrian leader, though, that the world expects President Asad to withdraw not only his military forces but his intelligence services completely from Lebanon. And now he is in charge of following up to make sure it happens.

I think that's a very important and useful role for the United Nations to play. We have played a role. France has played a role. A lot of nations have played roles. But the United Nations has done a very good job in Syria--with Syria, in Lebanon, of making sure that the world expects the Lebanese elections to be free in May, without Syrian influence. He's an impressive fellow. I applaud him for his hard work. But there's an example of why I think the United Nations is an important body.

On the other hand, the United Nations has had some problems that we've all seen. And if we expect the United Nations to be effective, it needs to clean up its problems. And I think it makes sense to have somebody representing the United States who will be straightforward about the issues.

Stretch [Richard Keil, Bloomberg News]. You mind if I call you Stretch in front of--

Q. I've been called worse.

The President. Okay.

Personal Savings Accounts in Social Security

Q. Getting back to Social Security for a moment, sir, would you consider it a success if Congress were to pass a piece of legislation that dealt with the long-term solvency problem but did not include personal accounts?

The President. I feel strongly that there needs to be voluntary personal savings accounts as a part of the Social Security system. I mean, it's got to be a part of a comprehensive package. The reason I feel strongly about that is that we've got a lot of debt out there, a lot of unfunded liabilities, and our workers need to be able to earn a better rate of return on our money to help deal with that debt.

Secondly, I like the idea of giving someone ownership. I mean, why should ownership be confined only to rich people? Why should people not be allowed to own and manage their own assets who aren't the, you know, the so-called investor class? I think everybody ought to be given that right. As a matter of fact, Congress felt so strongly that people ought to be able to own and manage their own accounts, they set one up for themselves. You've heard me say--I like to say this, if it's good enough for the Congress, it is--it ought to be good enough for the workers, to give them that option. The Government is never saying, "You have to set up a personal savings account." We're saying, "You ought to have the right to set up a personal saving account so you can earn a better rate of return on your own money than the Government can."