Exchange With Reporters

The Economy

Q. Have you had a chance to look at the—[inaudible]—numbers?

The President. I'm positive about it.

Q. Do you think it calmed the market fears about inflation?

The President. It certainly should. You look at this—the job numbers are still very good. This is the job numbers for the 4 years before our administration. Here are the private sector job numbers just for January of '93 through March of '94.

So this rate of growth is enough to keep the deficit coming down and jobs coming into the economy. And it certainly should send a clear signal to the markets saying we don't have an inflation worry.

I think that if you look at the pattern of the last few years, this means we'll have growth in the range of 3 percent this year, which means more jobs, steadily growing economy, more and more opportunity. So I feel good about it. But it ought to also send a clear signal that inflation is going to be at or below 3 percent. There is no inflation worry in this economy.

Social Security

Q. So why separate the Social Security Administration? Why is that necessary?

The President. Oh, I think that, first of all, that the Administration will tend to work better. The reinventing Government program under the Vice President almost recommended it. But there has also been a feeling, I think, among the constituencies of the senior citizen groups for years that if the Social Security Administration were separate, that would help to guarantee the integrity long-term of the Social Security program, the Social Security fund, and that there would be more responsiveness to the specific concerns of people on Social Security.

And I'll just give you one—we're going to start, as soon as we can, on a limited basis sending out statements to the American people. But within the next 4 or 5 years, we'll be able to send out statements to everybody in the country every year on their Social Security account: here's what you've got in it; here's how much money it's earned; here's what you can look forward to getting out. It will be a statement that every American who's stockholder, if you will, in Social Security will get every year. And it's all part of this effort to ensure that Social Security is there well into the next century even though our population is aging.

Q. Is the integrity——

The President. No, it's not at all.