Blumenauer Signs Social Security Petition

WASHINGTON, DC --- Today Congressman Earl Blumenauer took an important step in the fight to save Social Security benefits. Blumenauer, who opposes privatization, signed a Discharge Petition that will force a debate of the privatization plans proposed by the President's Commission on Social Security. Democrats have initiated consideration of these bills in an effort to expose the many unpopular features, such as benefit cuts, retirement age increases, and taking money out of the Trust Funds to pay for private accounts.

Despite the President's promise to provide long-term Social Security solvency, Republicans in Congress have refused to hold hearings or mark up their proposals and refuse to bring them to the floor for debate.

The action comes on the heels of a report released Tuesday by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Century Foundation, "Reducing Benefits and Subsidizing Individual Accounts: An Analysis of the Plans proposed by the Bush Commission to Strengthen Social Security." The report outlines the negative impact the private accounts proposed by the Commission would have on Social Security's finances, the proposals' reliance on transfers of general revenues from unspecificied sources in order to pay for private accounts, and the significant benefit cuts required by the Commission's proposals.