"Is the Bush administration really willing to drop private accounts?"

Hubbard Suggests Add-On Accounts Might Be More Favorable Than Carve-Outs. In an interview with USA Today, Allan Hubbard, head of the National Economic Council suggested, "President Bush was willing to consider making a major shift in his Social Security proposal: creating individual investment accounts that would be an 'add-on' to the current system, not a part of it financed by diverting payroll taxes. 'We haven't ruled it out, we haven't ruled it in, but we're certainly willing to discuss it.'" [USA Today, 4/15/05]

But Just Last Week, Rove Made it Clear Private Accounts "[Have] to be Part of the Long-Term Solution." In an interview with Bloomberg, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove made it clear that private accounts must be a part of the solution. "The personal retirement account has to be part of the long- term solution…We've already got add-ons; they're called IRAs and 401(k)s." [Bloomberg, 4/5/05]