Different Views:

Obama’s (Latest) Social Security Whopper

August 16, 2010
The president claims Republican leaders are as eager to 'privatize' Social Security as they are to repeal his health care law.
- That’s not true.

Summary
President Obama claimed that Republican leaders are pushing to make "privatizing Social Security a key part of their legislative agenda" should they regain control of the House and Senate. He said this is "right up there on their to-do list with repealing" parts of the new health care law.
We find the president’s claim to be mostly false.

• Few if any Republicans now in Congress have ever pushed for total "privatization" of Social Security. What President Bush proposed in 2005 was to allow workers under the age of 55 to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in private accounts. Most of their taxes would have continued to go into traditional Social Security.

• Bush’s proposal to create private accounts had so little Republican support in 2005 — when the GOP controlled both the House and Senate — that it was never introduced as formal legislation. We’ve seen no evidence to suggest the idea is any more popular among Republicans now.

• Only one Republican "leader" is currently pushing publicly for Bush-style private accounts, as part of an overall budget plan. He is Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the senior GOP member of the House Budget Committee. His plan currently has only 13 cosponsors, none of them in the GOP House leadership.

The president further distorted the Republican position when he claimed that the GOP plan would "[tie] your benefits to the whims of Wall Street traders." That’s not true of the private accounts Bush proposed. Those would have been invested in strictly regulated, broadly based mutual funds, much like the funds in which millions of federal workers invest their own retirement funds.

Sources
Obama, Barack. "Weekly Address: President Obama Promises to Protect Social Security from Republican Plans to Privatize It." The White House. 14 Aug 2010.

Tanner, Michael. Exchange of emails with FactCheck.org.  Cato Institute. 16 Aug 2010.

"Fact Sheet: Strengthening Social Security for the 21st Century." The White House. 10 Feb 2005.

"Strengthening Social Security for the 21st Century." Policy document. The White House. Feb 2005.

Pelosi, Nancy. "Social Security at 75: The Latest Republican Assault." press release, office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 13 Aug 2010.

Marcus, Ruth. "Leader of the Not-Democrats Party." Item on "Post Partisan" blog, Washingtonpost.com. 21 Jul 2010.
Ryan, Rep. Paul. "A Roadmap for America’s Future." Jan 2010.

111th Congress, 2nd Session H. R. 4529. "A bill to provide for the reform of health care, the Social Security system, the tax code for individuals and business, job training, and the budget process." 27 Jan 2010.

"Background press briefing on Social Security." Office of the Press Secretary, The White House. 2 Feb 2010.

Jackson, Brooks. "Obama’s Social Security Whopper." FactCheck.org. 20 Sep 2008.

Robertson, Lori and Brooks Jackson. "Scaring Seniors." FactCheck.org. 19 Sep 2008.

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