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In his call for massive changes in the Social Security system, President Bush last night mischaracterized the federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Workers covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), which was adopted for new federal employees in the 1980s, not only pay their full amount into Social Security, they have the separate option of also participating in the TSP as a way of building their retirement security. They can do so by depositing a portion of their paychecks into any of five broadly-based investment funds. The President stated that it is time to extend the same security, choice and ownership to young Americans. We agree with that concept. However, in the federal employee program, unlike in the president’s proposal, no money is diverted from Social Security to take part in TSP—a program so popular that 87 percent of FERS-covered employees participate. The president’s dangerous Social Security proposal does not extend the same security, choice and ownership to other Americans. Instead, it seeks to divert money from the Social Security Trust Fund into private accounts and inject an unacceptable level of risk into the Social Security program. Its likely result will be the creation of significant Social Security Trust Fund shortfalls just as the baby boom generation enters its retirement years. NTEU strongly opposes the president’s risky scheme to privatize Social Security, and urges Congress to reject it.