May 2

This Day in History

Also on This Day

Lead Story
Loch Ness Monster sighted, 1933
American Revolution
Elias Boudinot is born, 1740
Automotive
GM buys Chevrolet, 1918
Civil War
Confederates deliver blow to Union at Chancellorsville, 1863
Cold War
Joseph McCarthy dies, 1957
Crime
A grisly crime leads to rubber gloves, 1924
Disaster
Sandstorm in Egypt kills 12, topples buildings, 1997
General Interest
Hudson's Bay Company chartered, 1670
Madrid revolts against French rule, 1808
End of an era at the FBI, 1972
Osama bin Laden killed by U.S. forces, 2011
Hollywood
Iron Man released, 2008
Literary
Manuscript of Edna St. Vincent Millay's Conversations at Midnight destroyed in hotel fire, 1936
Music
Dick Clark survives the Payola scandal, 1960
Old West
John B. Jones becomes major in Texas Rangers, 1874
Presidential
George W. Bush forms commission on Social Security, 2001
Sports
Gehrig ends streak, 1939
Vietnam War
U.S. ship sunk in Saigon port, 1964
Joint forces continue attack into Cambodia, 1970
World War I
Allies argue over U.S. troops joining battle on Western Front, 1918
World War II
German troops in Italy surrender to the Allies, while Berlin surrenders to Russia's Zhukov., 1945

Presidential

May 2, 2001:

George W. Bush forms commission on Social Security

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On this day in 2001, President George W. Bush appoints a commission to investigate potential changes to the nation's Social Security system. The commission was charged with examining the feasibility of unprecedented and controversial changes Bush had proposed for a Social Security system that had been largely unchanged since it was created by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. In an executive order to create the bipartisan commission, Bush wrote that he intended "to preserve Social Security for senior Americans while building wealth for younger Americans."

Bush proposed changes to Social Security in response to what he and leading economists saw as a looming crisis in the system. As the nation's large post-World War II "baby boomer" generation retired, more money would begin going out of the system to pay their benefits than would come in from the smaller numbers of younger workers still paying into the system. This would mean, according to Bush, that benefits would have to be cut or taxes raised in order to shore up the system. Instead, Bush proposed to allow younger workers the voluntary option to invest Social Security funds in a "conservative mix of bond and stock" accounts that would generate a higher return than the rate offered by the old federally managed system.

A significant number of critics cited the plan's potential for abuse. Some Democratic leaders and economic analysts denied that Social Security was about to go bust and assailed the president's plan as financially risky. Some worried that people would risk their future financial security by making unwise investment choices, similar to "playing the stock market." Opponents pointed out that the plan would be expensive to implement and also feared it would give the government the power to "raid" excess funds in Social Security to spend on controversial projects.

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This Week in History, May 2 - May 8

May 02, 2001
George W. Bush forms commission on Social Security
May 03, 1940
FDR addresses thousands of Democratic women
May 03, 1961
JFK receives honorary degree
May 04, 1865
Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois
May 04, 1977
David Frost interviews Richard Nixon
May 05, 1985
Reagan visits concentration camp and war cemetery
May 06, 1933
FDR creates the WPA
May 07, 1789
George Washington attends inaugural ball
May 08, 1884
Harry S. Truman is born

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