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Social Security: The Privatizers Won't Give Up

AMERICANS KNOW THAT Social Security is much more than a card — it’s a promise from each generation to the next. In 2005, however, President Bush and his supporters tried to break that promise with a privatization plan that would have weakened the retirement security of average Americans by significantly reducing future benefits. It also would cost trillions of dollars, creating a huge increase in the national debt.

AFSCME’S CAMPAIGN. For over a year, AFSCME and the coalition we founded — Americans United to Protect Social Security — waged an aggressive grassroots campaign to convince members of Congress to protect Social Security, not destroy it through privatization and massive benefit cuts. When the majority of Americans made it clear they didn’t want to replace the dependable 70-year-old system, Congress put aside the President’s privatization plan and AFSCME breathed a sigh of relief.

Much to our disbelief, however, the privatizers haven’t given up. Despite our success last year in beating back the President’s plan, the forces behind privatization — including President Bush, his congressional allies and Wall Street investment interests that stand to make big profits — now say they will never give up their assault on the most successful domestic program ever enacted in the United States.

ROUND TWO. So, get ready for another round of attacks on Social Security. On several occasions this summer and fall, Bush said that reforming Social Security would continue to be a top priority for as long as he serves as President. In June, his chief of staff, Josh Bolton, told the Wall Street Journal (June 17, 2006) that the administration was laying the groundwork for its efforts to privatize Social Security next year.

That was followed in August with a speech by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson at Columbia University, where he said he hoped to lead the administration forces pushing for private accounts.

WHAT ELECTION? Even their party’s overwhelming defeat on Election Day didn’t seem to change the administration’s agenda. The very next day, the President said he would move forward with his Social Security plan, asking Paulson to reach out to members of the new congress.

Also, The New York Times reported on Nov. 12 that Ken Mehlman, chair of the Republican National Committee, told a crowd gathered at Americans for Tax Reform headquarters that, despite the election, President Bush would not flinch from Social Security privatization and other conservative ideas.

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