Courtney Talks Tough On Saving Social Security

Courtney Talks Tough On Saving Social Security
Candidate Warns Of GOP Plans To Overhaul System
By Ted Mann, The New London Day, June 16, 2006

New London - Former U.S. Rep. Barbara Kennelly joined Democratic congressional hopeful Joseph Courtney on Thursday to trumpet what they call another good reason to boost the minority party into control of the Congress: what they call the Republicans' renewed commitment to make major changes to Social Security.

Seizing on comments attributed to Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., who told a Washington publication that "Congress should make Social Security overhaul its top priority next year," Kennelly and Courtney said Republicans plan to resurrect President George W. Bush's unsuccessful attempt to add private investment accounts to the country's national retirement program.

"What is going on is a philosophical debate in Washington that government doesn't have a role" in providing a safety net for the elderly and the poor, Kennelly said. "They don't believe in government. I do."

"To me and to the voters of the 2nd Congressional District, that sends a message that is loud and clear," Courtney said, "and that is that Republicans in Washington and Republicans in Congress cannot be trusted with the future of the Social Security program. ... They cannot stop."

The campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, suggested the criticism was overblown and noted that the congressman does not support allowing funds currently used for Social Security benefit payments to be transferred to private investment accounts, as the Bush plan had envisioned.

Instead, said the campaign manager, Chris Healy, Simmons supports an expansion of Social Security into a two-tiered system that would maintain the current entitlement benefit but add an optional savings account program, "so that we can get people into the practice of savings, and that's a real cultural problem in our society if nothing else."

Healy also said the Republican-controlled Congress and Bush had begun proposing changes to the program because "for a long time Democrats didn't want to hear anything about it."

But Kennelly said Congress had addressed the coming of the baby boom generation in a series of agonizing votes in 1983 - "I'm surprised I got re-elected," she said - and added that she thought Republicans were exaggerating the fiscal difficulties the program would face while using some of its dedicated revenues to pay for other expenses.

"They've got to stop using the Social Security program as an ATM machine," Courtney added.

But some of those who initially supported or declined to oppose up front Bush's partial privatization plan were Democrats, including Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who was taken to task for it on some liberal Web logs and among some party faithful before coming out against the proposed changes.

Asked about Democrats who once had wavered, Kennelly, now the president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, just smiled.

"They got educated," she said.

And Lieberman, who now faces a primary challenger - Ned Lamont - who says Lieberman is too close to the president, has taken to repeatedly mentioning his opposition to Bush's plan for Social Security.

http://www.joecourtney.com/news/thedaysocialsecurity6-16.html