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New Ad Sounds the Alarm on Renewed GOP Privatization Scheme

August 16, 2010                                                                    

As Social Security Marks 75^th Anniversary, New Ad Sounds the Alarm on Renewed GOP Privatization Scheme

TV Ad From Americans United for Change Follows Launch of Major Mobilization Effort in 10 States Pressuring Politicians to ‘Take a Stand’ on Rep. Paul Ryan’s Budget ‘Roadmap’ to Handing Social Security Trust Fund Over to Wall Street

Click Here to View ‘Sneak Attack’

***Broadcast Quality Version***

Washington DC –As Social Security marks its 75^th year keeping seniors, survivors and disabled Americans out of poverty, Americans United for Change launched a new television ad today spotlighting a detailed Republican/Tea Party plan to replace the cherished social safety net with a risky privatization scheme and replace Medicare with a voucher system that will leave seniors on the hook for their medical care.  See script below for “Sneak Attack,” which airs on cable news this week in the nation’s capital. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPtcc_2I-HY

            Known formerly as Americans United to Protect Social Security, AUFC led the national campaign to defeat President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security in 2005 and – in a return to its roots – last week launched a major public accountability project, hiring staff in 10 battleground states with the mission of mobilizing local Social Security and Medicare advocates to pressure their members of Congress and political leaders to ‘take a stand’ on the Ryan “Roadmap to Ruin” and other plans to cut Social Security benefits and break the promise to millions of Americans.

The "Roadmap to Ruin” -- officially known as the “Roadmap to America’s Future” -- is a detailed proposal put forward by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and embraced by a number of GOP members and aspiring members of Congress that would bring an end to Social Security and Medicare as we know it.  This extremist budget plan would revive the same risky Bush privatization scheme for Social Security that was overwhelmingly rejected by the American public that would siphon off guaranteed benefits from the trust fund and place them in the hands of Wall Street bankers.   The Ryan ‘Roadmap’ also calls for replacing Medicare with a voucher system that would lead to “massive rationing” of medical care.

            Tom McMahon, Executive Director, Americans United for Change:“75 years ago, Congressional Republicans werevowing to oppose Social Security at “every opportunity.” 75 years later, they still haven’t given up their dream of undoing one of government’s greatest success stories that has been credited with lifting generations of seniors from poverty. Even after the American people resoundingly rejected President Bush’s scheme to privatize Social Security in 2005, Republican Leaders are as determined as ever to take the nation down the same tortured path.  There is growing Republican support for Congressman Ryan’s ‘roadmap’ to phasing out Social Security and Medicare through privatization, and as the Ranking Republican Member of the House Budget Committee, he could one day be in a position to execute it.  It’s time all Members and aspiring Members of Congress take a stand on the Ryan ‘roadmap’ for making Wall Street bankers richer and leading seniors to the poor house.  No more playing word games with seniors.  You’re either for the Ryan ‘roadmap’ to gutting guaranteed benefits, raising taxes on the middle-class, and shortchanging seniors on their medical care -- or you’re against it.” 

Washington Post’s Ezra Klein calls 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.”

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