ANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. - Texas Governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore engaged in a cross-country clash over Social Security's future yesterday, as Bush touted a plan in which workers would invest a portion of their payroll taxes in the stock market.
Appearing at the Rancho Cucamonga Senior Center at the base of the San Gabriel mountains, Bush told about 75 older voters that he wants to save Social Security before the system goes bankrupt by giving people more control and greater returns. He also said he would strengthen Medicare and provide a prescription drug benefit for seniors.
''A worker who invests even a limited portion of his or her paycheck could, over a career, end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars for retirement,'' Bush said.
Bush's Social Security talk was intentionally short on nuance and detail; his economic advisers repeatedly referred to a half-dozen bills pending in Congress as the potential basis for any future changes to the law without embracing the details of any one plan. Bush did not say whether he would raise the Social Security retirement age to lower the program's costs, although he said people who are retired or near retirement would not be affected.
Meanwhile, Gore, speaking at Beaver College in Amblin, Pa., accused Bush of risking the economic security of retirees by placing Social Security tax dollars in a volatile stock market. He has said women, minorities, and the disabled would be hurt most by Bush's proposed changes in the program.
''If we turn the Social Security system into a system of winners and losers, we will be jeopardizing retirement security for too many Americans and in the end we will all have to pay to make up the differences,'' Gore said.
''Today when Wall Street is booming, I know that plan sounds appealing,'' he continued. ''But in reality, the Bush Social Security privatization plan would weaken our economy and undermine the basic guarantee of a minimum decent retirement.''
Politically explosive, Social Security has long been a subject that candidates stayed away from, other than to profess their undying commitment. This year, the Bush campaign is gambling that younger voters will be attracted by the prospect of investing some of their own money for retirement.
Though Bush did not say how much money he would allow workers to invest, his advisers have mentioned it could be 2 percent of the 12.4 percent Social Security payroll tax. Larry Lindsey, Bush's economic adviser, said the increased return would also make up for the impending loss of money in the Social Security trust fund as the baby boom generation retires and fewer people are left to finance their monthly government checks. Lindsey said that extra payoff would also help close the nearly $1 trillion gap that would occur by diverting payroll taxes from the trust fund into private investment accounts.
The Social Security administration recently announced that the system will be solvent until 2037, up slightly from previous predictions because of the strong economy.
Bush was greeted yesterday by a smattering of protesters and an airplane dragging a sign that said ''Don't Privatize Social Security.'' The two campaigns pushed their economic advisers out front to boost or denounce the competing approaches.
Besides laying out his vision for Social Security, the Texas governor also used his speech to assail Gore for not addressing a looming crisis in Social Security and to rebut some of Gore's criticisms of him.
Bush mocked Gore for calling his plan ''risky,'' and he said the vice president wants to pass the problem on to future generations. He said keeping the current system solvent without changes, as Gore suggests, by some estimates could require as much as a 25 percent increase in income taxes or a sharp cut in benefits.
''At a time for leadership, for long-term thinking, my opponent proposes a Band-Aid approach,'' Bush said. ''He says, `If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' But in the lifetime of some people in this room, it will be broke, and we must fix it.''
Gore said he wants to use the budget surplus to continue paying down the national debt and use the interest saved from debt reduction to shore up the Social Security trust fund, extending the financial stability of the program until 2050.
Bush also said it is unfair for people with means to invest in the stock market to limit the freedom of others to do the same.
''Al Gore, who calls these bipartisan proposals risky, has a substantial amount of his money invested in the stock market,'' Bush said. ''If he is building his own retirement security in the market, why does he object to young Americans doing the same?''
The Gore campaign, however, said the vice president has no money of his own in the market, though he once oversaw a trust fund for his mother that includes stocks.
Yesterday, Gore said he encourages people to save for retirement with IRA and 401(k) accounts. But he said those should be in addition to basic Social Security payments, not as a substitute.
