|
STUDY FINDS PRIVATIZATION WOULD CAUSE MASSIVE CUTS IN GUARANTEED BENEFITS |
|
|
|
Over 94,000 Coloradans Would Fall Into Poverty without Promised Benefits
Denver, CO - Current and future Social Security recipients came together today to sound the alarm on the long term economic impact the McCain-Bush style privatization plan for Social Security would have on Colorado families. According to a report by the Campaign for America's Future, Social Security privatization would cut guaranteed benefits by $262,206 over the course of a single recipient’s lifetime.
“Currently, there are 616,000 Coloradans relying on Social Security, the most effective anti-poverty program in our country since its inception,” said Pat Waak, Chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party. “Diverting money away from the Social Security Trust and gambling it in the stock market takes the guarantee out of guaranteed benefits for current and future retirees. If McCain and the same folks who stood by President Bush the last time they tried it manage to privatize Social Security, we can expect 94,000 Coloradans to be thrust into poverty.”
The financial burden of health care, nutrition and housing for retirees and other beneficiaries will fall to our state and to our families. As the Campaign for America’s Future report explains, McCain’s privatization plan would endanger the $7.3 billion in annual funds from Social Security recipients upon which local businesses and the state government rely.
“Senator McCain has been quite clear, offering more of the same failed Bush economic policies and saying personally that he believes that the way Social Security works is a ‘disgrace’,” said Waak. “Well, the people of Colorado disagree. We are here to say no to the same old politics that put Wall Street profits ahead of our families. We can work together to ensure that Social Security will continue to be a strong and vital component of American life, but privatization is the wrong thing to do, and would only serve to destroy the most effective anti-poverty program in our history. This election the choice is clear: Senator McCain, who wants to privatize Social Security, or Senator Obama who will work with Congress and the American people to ensure we honor America’s promise to us all, and that we can someday retire in dignity.”
The full report by the Campaign for America's Future can be found at <http://assets.ourfuture.org/documents/perils-of-privatization/colorado.pdf>.
|
|
|
|
