President Bush Uses Print Shop as a Pulpit

President George W. Bush pushed his proposals for personal retirement accounts while visiting The Printer, Inc., a 150-employee print shop located in Des Moines, Iowa. During the President's speech, some employees were seated near the podium under a banner that read, "Protecting Workers' Pensions." President Bush said he selected The Printer, Inc. as the place to discuss his retirement reform proposals because the company had "a good 401(k) plan."

In his remarks to a turnout of about 300 people, the President said, "A good plan is one where the company says it's to your advantage to put away as much money as you can when you're younger and understand the power of compounding interest rates. In other words, watching that money grow on a tax-free basis makes a lot of sense. And the workers here at The Printer, Inc. understand that."

The key components of President Bush's retirement reform plan include:

• Granting workers the power to choose how to invest their pension assets.
• Giving rank-and-file workers the same rights as senior executives to manage their retirement assets.
• Providing workers more access to professional investment advice to help diversify and protect their savings.
• Allowing Americans the choice to seek a better rate of return on their investment in Social Security.