EW ORLEANS - George W. Bush should explain to the American people before the election how he would pay up to $1 trillion in transition costs for his plan to let workers invest some of their Social Security taxes in the stock market, Al Gore said yesterday.
Pivoting off a planned speech about education and job training, the Democratic presidential contender focused on his rival's repeated unwillingness to provide such details. Bush has said the details will be worked out in negotiations with Congress after he is elected.
The vice president said the specifics are especially important considering the $1.3 trillion, 10-year tax cut that Bush wants to provide. Gore contends the tax cut would crowd out other uses for projected budget surpluses, including improving education and retraining workers for the high-tech economy.
''When we have to make hard choices, we don't pretend that we can have our surplus and eat it, too,'' Gore told students and administrators at Delgado Community College. ''We face up to the hard choices and just make 'em.''
He added: ''It does matter if the numbers add up.''
Fueling Gore's statement was a letter sent to Bush by a longtime Social Security commissioner and two other academics.
They wrote: ''We do not understand how you are going to keep your promise not to cut Social Security benefits for those at or near retirement while diverting substantial payroll tax revenues into private accounts. ... The question is, where will that $1 trillion come from?''
The letter's authors were Robert Ball, Social Security commissioner from 1962 to 1973; Henry Aaron, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; and Alicia Munnell, a Boston College economics professor.
They said the only options are to cut benefits for existing retirees; pay the costs with the surplus; pay them from the existing Social Security trust fund, accelerating its insolvency; or borrow the money.
All three authors are not formally affiliated with the Gore campaign, but have been advising the vice president and offering analysis to reporters on the campaign's behalf.
The Bush campaign criticized the trio, offering excerpts of interviews in which all three expressed support for having the government - not individuals - invest Social Security money in the stock market.
''It's interesting that Al Gore would unleash his own partisan advisers to attack Governor Bush on Social Security, since all three advocate making the federal government the largest investor in the stock market and increasing taxes to shore up Social Security,'' said Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett. ''Governor Bush's plan locks away $2.4 trillion to save and strengthen Social Security and provides younger workers more control over their retirement savings.''
Both presidential contenders acknowledge that the Social Security system must be reformed to maintain its solvency. While the system currently takes in more money than it pays out in benefits, that will change with the retirement of the Baby Boom generation and increasing life expectancies.
By 2015, the Social Security Administration will start paying out more in benefits than it takes in from payroll taxes. By 2037, the system is projected to be insolvent. Gore wants to extend it to 2054 by paying down the national debt and plowing the interest savings back into the Social Security trust fund.
Bush contends that Gore would do so with IOUs that would ultimately cost $67 trillion.
While Bush hasn't directly addressed the solvency issue, he has proposed allowing younger workers to invest some of their 12.4 percent Social Security tax in the stock market to achieve greater retirement savings. The Texas governor hasn't defined a percentage, but most discussion centers on 2 percentage points, or about 16 percent of the tax.
A ''transition cost'' would be incurred as younger workers shifted over to the private accounts, reducing the amount of money flowing into the trust fund even as it is being drawn upon to pay benefits for existing retirees. Specialists say it could create a cash shortfall of up to $1 trillion.
When he announced his proposal in April, Bush said he wanted to avoid details to leave negotiating room with Congress.
