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Pelosi: Today’s Social Security Proposal is Same Risky Privatization Scheme in Different Packaging

June 22, 2005

Pelosi: Today’s Social Security Proposal is Same Risky Partial Privatization Scheme in Different Packaging

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Contact: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. â€" House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today in response to a proposal by Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee to create private Social Security accounts:

â€Å"The Republican Ways and Means proposal released today is just the same risky partial privatization scheme in different packaging. It still includes huge benefit cuts to the middle class, massive debt, and a weaker Social Security program â€" ideas that the American people have already rejected.

â€Å"Like the Bush partial privatization plan, the Ways and Means Majority’s proposal would divert payroll contributions to create private accounts. The only difference is cosmetic â€" one approach would create risky private accounts directly from a worker’s paycheck, and the other would finance risky private accounts from Social Security payroll taxes when they reached the federal Treasury.

â€Å"Democrats stand ready to begin bipartisan discussions on protecting Social Security solvency, but this cannot begin until the Majority begins talking about ways to make Social Security stronger, not weaker. Today’s unveiling moves us in the wrong direction, away from ensuring that American workers receive the benefits they have earned.

â€Å"From the beginning, we have said that the first step toward strengthening Social Security is paying back the trust fund. On the House floor this afternoon, the Majority yet again rejected our attempt to stop their raid on the Social Security trust fund.”