Americans United Blasts Bush/McCrery Attempt to Make Social Security Privatization ‘Top Priority’
Americans United's message to Bush and Right-Wing Allies in Congress: ‘Bring it On!'
Washington D.C. - The following is a statement from Brad Woodhouse, spokesman for Americans United, in response to House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Jim McCrery (R-LA)'s announcement today that the overhaul of Social Security will be a top priority in 2007:
"It should be no surprise to the American people that President Bush and his right-wing allies in Congress are continuing their zealous effort to dismantle Social Security with a reckless and hugely unpopular privatization plan. Privatization was a terrible, irresponsible idea in 2005; it's every bit as bad, if not more so, today. For President Bush and Rep. Jim McCrery to continue to advocate replacing Social Security with a risky privatization scheme that was resoundingly rejected by the American public in 2005 shows just how out of step this administration and his allies in Congress really are."
"Even after the President's privatization proposal was soundly defeated in 2005, Bush had the audacity to insert his plan to gut middle-class benefits into the 2007 budget proposal he submitted to Congress earlier this year. The President and his allies have lost touch with reality if they really believe they can rewrap and peddle the exact same proposal to the American people that would slash benefits for millions of middle-class Americans and explode the national debt even further. Nothing can change the fact that privatization does not add one single day to the life of Social Security. Not one single day."
"But if this is the game the President and the right-wingers in Congress want to continue to play with our future, Americans United and its allies are ready, willing, and able to once again take up the fight they led in 2005 to defeat this disastrous proposal. Today, Americans United has campaign operations in 22 different states and is ready to roll at a drop of a hat."
"President Bush and Congressman McCrery's desire to put privatization at the top of 2007 legislative agenda assumes a great deal about the outcome of the mid-term elections - a dangerous assumption at best."
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"SOCIAL SECURITY; McCrery: Social Security Change Should Top '07 Agenda," Congress Daily PM, 6/6/06
Congress should make Social Security overhaul its top priority next year, while a rewrite of the tax code and revamping the nation's healthcare system probably will wait until at least 2009, House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Jim McCrery, R-La., said today. McCrery said it will take the expiration of tax cuts in 2010 to build enough political support for tax reform, even though President Bush and many Republican lawmakers would like to tackle it sooner. "I think the president wants to do tax reform, and I'm certainly ready to help him do tax reform in '07 and '08. Looking at the lay of the land politically and substantively, it seems to me the more logical order would be Social Security, then tax reform, then healthcare reform," he told reporters after addressing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. McCrery said Congress should take up Social Security first because doing nothing would have "tremendous negative fiscal consequences," and it is easier to solve from a policy standpoint than fixing Medicare and Medicaid. "If we can get [Social Security] done, I think that buys us the political capital to move on to the bigger issues of health care," he said.
McCrery is the leading contender to chair the House Ways and Means Committee in the next Congress but faces a challenge from the more senior Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fla. In his comments to the Chamber, McCrery pledged support for many of the business group's legislative priorities, including lowering corporate taxes and removing the burden of employer healthcare costs. "We need to find a way to finance health care and take it out of the workplace," he said. On immigration, McCrery said the chances for a successful conference this year are better than one might conclude based on the vast differences between House- and Senate-passed measures because voters want Congress to act. "I'd call it 50-50 at this point. I'm more optimistic than most because of the political dynamic," McCrery said.
He predicted Congress will pass legislation to address physician reimbursements under Medicare, perhaps in a lame-duck session this year. "I don't want to alarm you, but we could be considering a Medicare bill sometime around Christmas Eve," he said. McCrery reassured business representatives that a tax extenders package that is being negotiated as part of the pension conference will not include tax increases that are "particularly objectionable." But he cautioned them not to get their hopes up over the repeal of revenue raisers that were part of the tax reconciliation bill. "I will say it's difficult to go back and recapture that tax benefit once we've used it as a pay-for. It's possible. I wouldn't put it in the likely category, but it's possible," he said. On trade, McCrery said despite GOP efforts, Congress might not pass this year any of several free trade agreements awaiting approval. "Democrats seem to be pretty much in lockstep on the issue of labor provisions in these FTAs," he said.
-- by Martin Vaughan