Sanders Brings Out 700 Vermonters for Social Security Meetings

Sanders Brings Out 700 Vermonters for Social Security Meetings
3/7/2005

Congressman Bernie Sanders hosted four town meetings this weekend on Social Security. President Bush has made privatizing Social Security his top domestic priority. Sanders held meetings in Rutland, Montpelier, Burlington and St. Albans. The meetings were held in conjunction with AARP Vermont, the Community of Vermont Elders (COVE), the Vermont Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA), the Older Women's League (OWL), the Champlain Valley Agency on Aging, the Central Vermont Council on Aging, the Central Vermont Community Action Council (CVCAC), and the Vermont AFL-CIO.

Sanders said, "The meetings confirmed to me that people in Vermont are opposed to Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. They realize his plan would be a disaster. Social Security has been the most successful anti-poverty program in American history. During the last 70 or so years, whether the economy was strong or weak, whether the stock market was up or down, every eligible American received every nickel that he or she was entitled to. The truth is that the changes that the Bush administration wants to make to Social Security-allowing people to divert their Social Security taxes into new privatization accounts-will make Social Security less financially sound. The fact that Social Security is not in "crisis" and is not going "bankrupt" doesn't mean that the Congress should do nothing. In my view, over the next several years Congress should take a hard look at Social Security to make sure that it is strong and solvent not just for the next 37 or 47 years, as it is now, but even further into the future."

http://bernie.house.gov/documents/releases/20050307175737.asp