Do Nunnelee, McGlowan and Ross Support Social Security Privatization?
Democrats today demanded that Mississippi congressional candidates Alan Nunnelee, Angela McGlowan and Henry Ross step forward and make clear their position on the newly proposed GOP Budget Roadmap which includes privatization of social security. The plan, introduced by ranking Republican budget committee member, Representative Paul Ryan, returns to the Bush-era concept of privatizing social security in wall street accounts. Representative Pete Sessions, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee which has named Alan Nunnelee a contender for its Young Gun Candidate Program, supports privatizing social security.
“Mississippi seniors can’t afford to let a candidate for Congress and his cronies in Washington gamble their hard-earned Social Security funds on the stock market,” said Jesse Ferguson, Southern Regional Press Secretary at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Mississippi families deserve to know if any of these candidates has sold them out to big bankers on Wall Street by backing this dangerous social security privatization. They can’t run for Congress without making clear where they stand on this issue that is so important to Mississippi seniors.”
Background
The House GOP Leaders support privatizing social security. In May 2001, now NRCC Chairman Representative Pete Sessions, co-signed a letter to the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security urging for privatization. The letter read, “Social Security reform must offer younger workers the opportunity to improve their rates of return using personal retirement accounts.” [Rep. Jim DeMint Letter to The Social Security Reform Commission, 5/24/01]
Alan Nunnelee is a part of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s list of contenders in their Young Gun candidate program. [NRCC]
The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein writes that under House Republican Ranking Member of the Budget Committee Paul Ryan’s budget proposal reforms are “nothing short of violent. Medicare is privatized. Seniors get a voucher to buy private insurance, and the voucher’s growth is far slower than the expected growth of health-care costs. Medicaid is also privatized. The employer tax exclusion is fully eliminated, replaced by a tax credit that grows more slowly than medical costs. And beyond health care, Social Security gets guaranteed, private accounts that CBO says will actually cost more than the present arrangement, further underscoring how ancillary the program is to our budget problem.” [The Washington Post, 2/1/10], [Ranking Republican of Budget Committee Paul Ryan Web site]
In 2005, President Bush went on a 60 stops in 60 days Social Security tour, following him outlining the details of his private account plan in his February State of the Union Address. [Washington Post, 4/27/05]
Had seniors been relying on private social security accounts in the Stock Market during the 2008 collapse, they might have lost nearly 40% of their retirement savings in the 12 months leading up to the collapse. On October 9, 2007 the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 14,164.53. On October 9, 2008 the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 8,579.19. [History of Dow Jones Industrial Average, http://www.mdleasing.com/djia.htm; http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=^DJI&a=09&b=9&c=2007&d=09&e=9&f=2008&g=d&z=66&y=198]
2/17/10
Magnolia Tribune
