The President's news conference

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Dec 27, 2004

Now, the benefits, as far as I'm concerned, of the personal savings account, is, one, it encourages an ownership society. One of the philosophies of this Government is, if you own something, it is--it makes the country a better--if more people own something, the country is better off. You have a stake in the future of the country if you own something. Secondly, it's capital available for--when people save, it provides capital for entrepreneurial growth and entrepreneurial expansion, which is positive. In other words, it enhances savings. And thirdly, it means that people can take their own assets, their own retirement assets, and pass them on, if they so choose, to their family members, for example. That's positive. That's a step.

The Social Security system was designed in a--obviously, in an era that is long gone, and it has worked in many ways. It's now in a precarious position, and the question is whether or not our society has got the will necessary to adjust from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. And I believe the will will be there, but I'm under no illusions. It's going to take hard work. It's going to take hard work to convince a lot of people, some of whom would rather not deal with the issue--why deal with the issue unless there is a crisis?--and some of whom have got preconceived notions about the benefits of what may be possible.

Okay, let's get away from the media. Yes, Carl [Carl Cannon, National Journal], thank you. I accused Carl of trying to look like Johnny Damon. [Laughter]

Timetable for Iraq/Training Iraqi Forces

Q. Mr. President, it's--140,000 Americans are spending this Christmas in Iraq, as you know, some of them their second Christmas there. Now, you outlined your vision for Iraq, both in your statement and in response to David Gregory. My question is, how long do you think it will take that vision to be realized, and how long will those troops be there?

The President. No, it's a very legitimate question, Carl. And I get asked that by family members I meet with, and people say, "How long do you think it will take?" And my answer is, you know, we would like to achieve our objective as quickly as possible. It is our commander--again--I can--the best people that reflect the answer to that question are people like Abizaid and Casey, who are right there on the ground. And they are optimistic and positive about the gains we're making.

Again, I repeat, we're under no illusions that this Iraqi force is not ready to fight. They're--in toto, there are units that are, and that they believe they'll have a command structure stood up pretty quickly, that the training is intense, that the recruitment is good, the equipping of troops is taking place. So they're optimistic that as soon as possible it can be achieved. But it's--I'm also wise enough not to give you a specific moment in time because, sure enough, if we don't achieve it, I'll spend the next press conference I have with you answering why we didn't achieve this specific moment.