It’s Time for Kristi Noem to Stop Trying to Pull the Wool Over Seniors’ Eyes
August 13th, 2010
On the Eve of the 75th Anniversary of Social Security, It’s Time for Kristi Noem to Stop Trying to Pull the Wool Over Seniors’ Eyes About Her Support for Privatization
Argus Leader: “[I]n the debate, Noem said she had never taken a position specifically on privatizing Social Security.”
FLASHBACK: But in May Noem Said That a Detailed Republican Proposal to Do Just That: “[I]s a great place to start and the right direction for this country to go.”
Washington DC– On the eve of the 75th anniversary that the Social Security Act was signed into law, Americans United for Change called on State Rep. Kristi Noem to be honest with South Dakota seniors about her support for a plan to privatize the cherished social safety net that has been credited with lifting millions of seniors, survivors and disabled Americans out of poverty.
Earlier this week, Noem declared at a public forum that she has never taken a position specifically on privatizing Social Security. But Noem is on the record supporting a detailed budget proposal put forward by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the ranking Republican Member of the House Budget Committee, that would revive the same risky Bush privatization scheme for Social Security that was overwhelmingly rejected by the American public and would bring an end to Medicare as we know it. “[The Ryan budget’ is a great place to start and the right direction for this country to go,” Noem told the Rapid City Journal on May 12th.
“Does State Rep. Kristi Noem really think she can get away with telling a gathering of seniors that she has never taken a position on privatizing Social Security after telling a newspaper across the river that a detailed proposal to do exactly that is “the right direction for this country to go”,” said Tom McMahon, Executive Director, Americans United for Change, the group formerly known as Americans United to Protect Social Security that led the successful national campaign to defeat the President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security in 2005. “That’s insulting to the intelligence of South Dakota seniors.”
“It’s a question of honesty, and it’s time for Kristi Noem to be honest with South Dakota’s seniors that she embraces a serious proposal on the table that would privatize Social Security and turn guaranteed benefits into a guaranteed gamble on Wall Street,” added McMahon. “Noem needs to be honest with seniors that she backs a plan to replace Medicare with a voucher system that won’t even cover the full cost of medical care or prescriptions. Kristi Noem has every right to support a risky privatization scheme for Social Security and Medicare designed to make Wall Street bankers richer. She just needs to be honest about it with South Dakota’s seniors.”
Washington Post’s Ezra Klein called the ‘reforms’ detailed in Ryan's budget proposal “nothing short of violent.” Indeed, according to an in-depth analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “[T]he Ryan plan wouldraisetaxes for most middle-income families, privatize a substantial portion of Social Security, eliminate the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance, end traditional Medicare and most of Medicaid, and terminate the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The plan would replace these health programs with a system of vouchers whose value would erode over time and thus would purchase health insurance that would cover fewer health care services as the years went by.” Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman agrees, stressing that Ryan’s Medicare proposal “would have higher, not lower, costs than our current system. The only way the Ryan plan could save money would be by making those vouchers too small to pay for adequate coverage.”