Americans United says ‘Bring it On!’ as Bush Throws Down the Gauntlet on Social Security Overhaul
Washington D.C. - Americans United fired back in response to President Bush's renewed calls to overhaul Social Security during his remarks today at the JW Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C. The President assured his audience that "now is the time" for Social Security reform, and that "If we can't get it done this year, I'm going to try next year. And if we can't get it done next year, I'm going to try the year after that." Americans United, which led the fight to defeat the Bush-privatization proposal in 2005, called the effort ‘lipstick on a pig' and assured Bush and his allies in Congress that they are ready, willing, and able to take up the fight again until privatization is taken off the table once and for all. Bush's full remarks are found here.
"You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. For President Bush to call for his allies in Congress to dismantle Social Security with the same old reckless and hugely unpopular privatization plan signals just how hopelessly out of touch he really is. Privatization was a terrible, irresponsible idea in 2005; it's every bit as bad today. Privatization would mean massive benefit cuts for middle-class Americans and would send the already ballooning national debt to the point of no return. And nothing will change the fact that privatization wouldn't add a day to the life of Social Security - not one single day," said Brad Woodhouse, spokesman for Americans United.
WHY PRIVATIZATION IS A BAD DEAL FOR AMERICA
- Privatization is a bad deal for American's families and will weaken retirement security by imposing massive cuts in the guaranteed benefit that is a foundation for a secure retirement
- Privatization will put our economy at risk by relying on trillions of dollars of new borrowing and debt, mostly held by China, Japan, and other foreign creditors, and imposed a huge new burden of taxes on your workers, their children, and grandchildren to finance this debt.
- Privatization will weaken the long-term fiscal integrity of Social Security by diverting funds from the Social Security Trust Fund, at a time when we should be strengthening Social Security for the future.
- Social Security is a fundamentally sound program that can be strengthened through common-sense, bipartisan approaches - not radical changes. The first step in assuring the strength of the program is to assure that the money Americans have paid in to Social Security is used for Social Security - but President Bush and the proponents of privatization won't commit even to that.
"Even after the President's privatization proposal was soundly defeated in 2005, Bush had the audacity to insert the same plan to gut middle-class benefits into the 2007 budget proposal he submitted to Congress earlier this year. So make no mistake: President Bush intends fully to replace Social Security with a risky privatization scheme - as he said himself, if not now, then next year, or the year after that. And we will be there fighting him every step of the way. Today, all 22 of Americans United's state campaign operations have begun to mobilize in response, and will hold any and all members of Congress to account if they support the President's disastrous proposal or refuse to take a stand one way or another. And we're not going to quit until privatization is taken off the table once and for all," added Woodhouse.
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