42 Senators Address Bush on Social Security

[Charles Brown <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

42 Senators Address Bush on Social Security
    t r u t h o u t | Report

    Friday 04 March 2005

    Washington, D.C. - U. S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid released
the following letter sent to President Bush and signed by 42 Democratic
Senators.

________________________________

    March 3, 2005

    The President

    The White House
    1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
    Washington, DC

    Dear Mr. President:

    We write in the hope that we can achieve a bipartisan agreement to
strengthen Social Security for the long term and enhance the retirement
security of all Americans.

    Soon after your reelection, you made clear that your Administration's
top priority is to move toward the privatization of Social Security. Your
proposal would cut Social Security's funding by diverting payroll taxes into
privatized accounts, which would weaken the program and force deep cuts in
benefits. Your Administration also acknowledged that the proposal would
require borrowing trillions of dollars, much of which we know would come
from foreign countries like China and Japan.

    Democrats in the Congress believe this approach is unacceptable, and it
appears that most Americans agree with us. Funding privatized accounts with
Social Security dollars would not only make the program's long term problems
worse, but many believe it represents a first step toward undermining the
program's fundamental goals. Therefore, so long as this proposal is on the
table, we believe it will be impossible to establish the kind of
cooperative, bipartisan process we need to truly address the challenges
facing the program many decades in the future.

    We were encouraged that Treasury Secretary John Snow suggested that you
might be willing to abandon your privatization proposal and move instead to
an alternative approach in which investment accounts would be established
entirely separate and apart from Social Security. As you know, many
Democrats, including President Bill Clinton, have advocated just such an
approach, with benefits targeted to working and middle class families who
need help the most. So long as such accounts remain entirely independent
from Social Security and do not put the program's guaranteed benefits at
risk in any way, we believe they deserve serious consideration as part of a
broader effort to promote retirement security.

    While Secretary Snow's suggestion was initially encouraging, subsequent
reports indicate that you remain committed to your privatization plan and
his public comments were little more than a tactical maneuver. According to
a story in today's Washington Post, "White House officials are privately
telling Republicans that Bush is opposed to the idea [of accounts outside of
Social Security], but does not want to say so because it would appear he is
not willing to compromise."

    Given the conflicting and ambiguous reports on such a critical issue, we
urge you to publicly and unambiguously announce that you reject privatized
accounts funded with

    Social Security dollars or otherwise linked to the provision of
guaranteed Social Security benefits. Such a statement would eliminate a
serious obstacle to the kind of bipartisan process that Democrats are
seeking to deal with Social Security's long-term challenges and to improve
the retirement security of all Americans.

    Thank you for your consideration of our views.

    Sincerely,

    Senators:

    Akaka, Baucus, Bayh, Biden, Bingaman, Boxer, Byrd, Cantwell, Carper,
Clinton, Corzine, Dayton, Dodd, Dorgan, Durbin, Feinstein, Harkin, Inouye,
Jeffords, Johnson, Kennedy, Kerry, Kohl, Landrieu, Lautenberg, Leahy, Levin,
Lieberman, Lincoln, Mikulski, Murray, Bill Nelson, Obama, Pryor, Reed, Reid,
Rockefeller, Salazar, Sarbanes, Schumer, Stabenow, Wyden.

  -------