U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren Considers Detailed Republican Proposal to Privatize It Just “The Best”
August 13th, 2010
On the Eve of the 75th Anniversary of Social Security, U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren Considers Detailed Republican Proposal to Privatize It Just “The Best”
WashingtonDC– On the eve of the 75th anniversary that the Social Security Act was signed into law, Americans United for Change blasted U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren for praising a disastrous Republican plan to privatize the cherished social safety net that has been credited with lifting millions of seniors, survivors and disabled Americans out of poverty. At a town hall in Carmichael, California earlier this week, Lundgren hailed the extremist budget proposal put forward by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the ranking Republican Member of the House Budget Committee, as “the best long term look at trying to deal with our fiscal insanity right now that anybody has done.”
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.”
“If Congressman Dan Lungren thinks the Ryan plan to replace Social Security and Medicare with risky privatization schemes designed to make Wall Street bankers and insurance companies richer while raising taxes on Middle-class Californians and slashing guaranteed benefits for seniors is “the best” proposal out there, one shudders to think what he would consider the worst,” 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.
“Just as Lungren backed Bush’s privatization scheme in 2005, the Congressman today embraces this renewed effort to turn Social Security’s guaranteed benefits into a guaranteed gamble on Wall Street,” added McMahon. “Lungren will also have a tough time convincing California seniors that phasing out Medicare for a voucher system that won’t even cover the full cost of medical care or prescriptions is the “best” idea out there. Good luck with that.”