Social Security Privatization: Here It Comes Again

[Omaha Steve]

Social Security Privatization: Here It Comes Again

If Republicans retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives in this fall’s elections, the man who is likely to lead one of the most powerful congressional committees says their first legislative priority should be privatizing Social Security.

Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.), who is expected to take over the Ways and Means Committee if his party maintains its majority, wants to resurrect the Bush administration’s failed privatization scheme. The plan would shower billions of dollars on Wall Street firms and turn a guaranteed retirement benefit into a gamble that makes “Five-Card Texas Hold ’Em” seem like a sure bet.

McCrery told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce meeting Tuesday that along with privatizing Social Security he backs other chamber priorities, including lowering corporate taxes, according to news reports of the meeting.

Great news for a group that lobbied hard for the recently passed $70 billion tax-cut-for-the-rich bill, which slashes dividend and capital gains taxes, and that is drooling over the possibility the multimillionaire estate tax could be repealed.

The American public has soundly rejected calls to privatize Social Security, which would force huge benefit cuts and turn Social Security’s guarantee into a gamble, says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. But:

It seems President Bush and his right wing allies in Congress march to their own relentless drumbeat when it comes to dismantling the retirement security of America’s working families—and serving the interests of Wall Street.

snip

The two most at risk groups are low-income “Generation Xers” (born between 1965 and 1972) who face a 60 percent risk of not having sufficient retirement income and 54 percent of the later “Baby Boomers” (born 1955-1964).

If Social Security is privatized and benefits are cut, another group that is now 53 percent at risk for not having enough retirement income—two-earner Gen X couples—would be at even greater risk.


Full story: http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/06/07/social-security-privatization-here-it-comes-again/

I posted this on breaking news too.