Pelosi Statement on Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports

Pelosi Statement on Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on the 2006 reports of the Board of Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds:

"Today's trustees reports are another vivid illustration of the failures and missed opportunities of the Bush Administration. When President Bush took office, the United States enjoyed a $5.6 trillion budget surplus and the date that the Hospital Insurance fund became insolvent was moved backward from 1999 to 2029 under the previous Democratic Administration.

"This report, however, indicates that the Medicare solvency date has been moved forward to 2018, which is a direct result of the mismanagement of the economy, excessive subsidies to HMOs and the failure to constrain medical costs. Rather than using the Clinton surpluses to strengthen Social Security or Medicare, the President and the Republican Rubber Stamp Congress chose to go into debt by recklessly giving massive tax cuts to the wealthy.

"The report reinforces one basic reality - in its current form, Social Security will be able to pay full benefits until 2040 and even after that will be able to pay 74 percent of benefits. This finding flatly contradicts Republican efforts to manufacture a 'crisis' in Social Security to justify a privatization plan that is unaffordable, unnecessary, and unwise.

"Democrats are committed to addressing the long-term challenge faced by Social Security and Medicare to ensure that American families receive the secure retirement they have earned. Unfortunately, the Republican majority continues to promote risky privatization schemes for both Social Security and Medicare."

http://democraticleader.house.gov/press/releases.cfm?pressReleaseID=1533