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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Seventh District Congressman Dave Obey (D-WI) said that based upon initial reports of the GOP’s newly-unveiled Social Security privatization plan it appears that it is not new and that it will not provide the security that working Americans are seeking.
“The fundamental problem with Social Security is that about 40 years from now, the surpluses that have intentionally been built up in the trust fund to pay benefits for the baby boom generation will have been exhausted. At that time, social security revenues will cover about 70 percent of the promised benefits. The task elected officials need to undertake is to ensure that social security revenues are sufficient to pay full benefits for retired workers.
“The GOP’s latest rewriting of their privatization plan doesn’t address that problem, unfortunately. In fact, it makes it much worse. It doesn’t propose to use the social security surplus for social security at all. Instead, it proposes to take the surpluses that should be put aside for social security benefits for the baby boomers and uses them to create private accounts. There is nothing new in that. This proposal, like almost all the privatization plans that have been floated so far, will make the problem worse because it will greatly increase the size of the shortfall in the trust fund.
“The problem with social security is not that there aren’t plenty of ways to gamble your retirement. You can already do that. You can invest in the stock market. You can put your money in a 401(k). You can take it to Las Vegas or the riverboat casino and hope to strike it rich. What you cannot do, is get a guarantee that your benefits will be there when you need them.
“That’s what social security provides; that’s what we should be ensuring social security will continue to do for future generations of retirees; and, that is exactly what the latest privatization plan from the GOP conspicuously fails to do.”
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