Social Security is…Unconstitutional? Joe Miller Thinks So
August 30th, 2010
Miller Wants to “Transition out of” Social Security, Replace It With a Risky Privatization Scheme That Would Gut Guaranteed Benefits and Explode the National Debt by Trillions of Dollars
WashingtonDC – On the heels of the 75th anniversary that the Social Security Act was signed into law, Americans United for Change spotlighted Alaska U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller’s extreme views on the cherished safety net that has been credited with lifting millions of seniors, survivors and disabled Americans out of poverty.
Extremist Joe Miller: Let’s “transition out” of unconstitutional Social Security program, “go into more of a privatization”
SOURCE: Think Progress, 8/29/10: ‘Alaska GOP Senate Candidate Joe Miller Suggests Medicare And Social Security Are Unconstitutional’
[Sunday] on CBS’ Face the Nation, Host Bob Schieffer noted that Joe Miller wants to privatize Social Security and phase out Medicare and wondered whether those positions were a bit extreme. But Miller didn’t think so, suggesting that the U.S. Constitution supports his view:
MILLER: Well, yeah I would suggest to you that if one thinks that the Constitution is extreme then you’d also think the Founders are extreme. We just simply want to get back to basics, restore essentially the constitutional foundation of the country and that means the federal government becoming less onerous, less involved than every basically item of our lives and what that means is there does have to be some transition.
SOURCE: ABC News, 7/19/10: “[Miller] also said he wants to “transition out” of Social Security over time – but said it’s important not to impact benefits for senior citizens who are already receiving funds through the system... “[U]ltimately, we’ve got to transition out of the Social Security arrangement and go into more of a privatization. And you know, it's not that radical of an idea.”
“Joe Miller not only wants to privatize Social Security, he questions whether it should ever have existed in the first place – an extreme and wildly out-of-touch view that might not sit well with the 22,000 Alaskans who are kept out of poverty today thanks to the program,” 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.
“Joe Miller wants to revive the same old Bush privatization scheme designed to make Wall Street bankers richer while slashing guaranteed benefits and piling trillions of dollars in debt onto our grandchildren. If Joe Miller had his way, Alaskans’ guaranteed benefits would be turned into a guaranteed gamble on Wall Street. Privatization was terrible idea when Bush proposed it – it’s an even worse idea today.”
Think Progress: 2008 Retiree Would Have Lost $26,000 In Bush Style Private Social Security Account