Key GOP lawmaker fires warning over Soc. Sec. plans
Wednesday, January 19, 2005 3:58:57 PM
a few snips...
Personal accounts alone won't make Social Security solvent for the long term, noted House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., in remarks to a National Journal forum
Thomas, whose chairmanship of the tax-writing panel makes him a key player in any future Social Security legislation, suggested scrapping the current payroll tax system that funds the entitlement program and a host of other potentially controversial measures, including changes that would allow blue-collar workers to receive full benefits at a younger age than office workers
[shheesh where did that come from? What else are they hiding in these proposals - mish]
Thomas also said lawmakers should debate whether Social Security benefits should be gender-adjusted since women live longer than men
Thomas also warned that the partisan realities of a narrowly-divided Congress will render Bush's Social Security plan a "dead horse." "Every breath that's spent on discussing that plan is an attempt to lay a political ground war for the next election," Thomas said, according to The Washington Post. "Save those breaths. Talk about what we need to do now that the president's plan is on the table so that we can address, in a legislative way, a solution on a bill the president could sign. That would be, I think, a positive gesture. And I'm looking forward to those discussions and not a continual beating of what will soon be a dead horse of their proposal." Thomas' remarks underscored the lawmaker's status as one of Capitol Hill's most powerful and independent committee chairmen, said Ethan Siegal of The Washington Exchange, a firm that tracks policy issues for institutional investors
"The president's plan is a 'dead horse' not because of partisan politics but because it is a privatization plan based on massive benefit cuts, risky Wall Street accounts and $2 trillion in new debt," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "It will undermine Social Security at a time when we should be looking to strengthen the program and help Americans save." Reid also made much of Thomas' remarks on gender adjustment, charging that "Republicans are aiming to push even deeper cuts for America's women." The Social Security program is currently running an annual surplus. Some 47 million people receive Social Security benefits, including 29.5 million retired workers
Meanwhile, talk of benefit cuts by the White House has unnerved some Republican lawmakers, who fear that such a plan could haunt them in the 2006 midterm elections
forexstreet.com
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Is SS reform going anywhere?
Mish |
