Greenspan Urges Action on Social Security

WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan urged Congress Wednesday to move quickly to fix the financing problems in Social Security and Medicare, arguing that delay will only make the country's budgetary problems more severe, The Associated Press reported.

Greenspan again endorsed the key part of President Bush's Social Security overhaul to set up private accounts, but he stressed that much more needed to be done to put the giant retirement program and Medicare, which he said faced even more severe financial strains, on a more sound footing.

Last month, the Fed chairman had urged a go-slow approach on the provision of personal accounts for younger people.

On Wednesday, Greenspan repeated a warning he first made a year ago, saying he believed the government had promised more than it could deliver to the 78 million baby boomers now approaching retirement and saying that cuts in benefits would have to be considered.

-- NYSSCPA.org News Staff

Posted on 3/2/05