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U.S.
Senator Member of the Agriculture, Energy and Veterans Affairs
Committees |
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For Immediate
Release January 28, 2005 |
CONTACT: Cody Wertz – Press Secretary 202-228-3630 Jen Clanahan – Deputy Press Secretary 303-455-7600 |
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| SALAZAR: CANDOR NEEDED FROM PRESIDENT ON SOCIAL SECURITY
Denver, CO – U.S. Senator Ken Salazar outlined his concerns about President Bush’s Social Security privatization program. In recent weeks President Bush has been promoting the creation of private accounts as an alternative to Social Security. “As the President promotes
his agenda to create private accounts for Social Security we should
be alarmed about the estimated $2 trillion cost of the President’s program
which will greatly add to the huge federal deficit already created under
his fiscal policies. Likewise, we should be equally concerned that the
safety net provided by Social Security for millions of Americans will
be eroded. The President’s initiative will impact millions of Americans,
including the approximately 650,000 Coloradans whose lives are dependent
on Social Security.” 1. Today, the average benefit for a Social Security beneficiary in Colorado is $10,000. The President’s plan would reduce that amount 23% to $7700 per year. 2. The President’s plan would cost an additional $2.2 trillion for its first ten years, adding $7500 to every American’s, and therefore every Coloradan’s, share of the Federal Debt. U.S. Senator Salazar asked the Senate Finance Committee to respond to concerns about the President’s plans for private accounts for Social Security CONCERN #1: I am very worried that vulnerable Colorado Social Security benefit recipients – Colorado’s citizens of low and moderately low earnings in Conejos County and elsewhere throughout the state – will be injured significantly by the benefit cuts the President may propose. EVALUATION: According to the Congressional Budget Office, the average benefit for a Social Security beneficiary in Colorado is $10,000 today. A reduction of 23% would reduce that amount to $7,700 a year. CONCERN #2: I am concerned that the transition costs of the President’s program will overburden the citizens of Colorado with increased debt. EVALUATION: According to the Joint Economic Committee, the President’s plan would require additional borrowing in the first 10 years of $2.2 trillion. That amounts to an additional $7,500 per person in the United States and therefore IN Colorado. For the 4.3 million people of Colorado that comes to an additional $32 billion in federal debt. Prepared by Senate Finance Committee Democratic Staff, January 28, 2005 “We have a long-term challenge in Social Security. But Social Security is not in a crisis and we should not usher in solutions that will hurt benefits.” ”Successful Social Security
reforms have been done in the past in Congress on a bipartisan basis
– much like President Reagan accomplished in the 1980s,” said Salazar.
“We can fashion the same sort of bipartisan solution again, but we can’t
do it in an atmosphere of exaggerated crisis.”
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