President Obama Refuses To Privatize Social Security

President Obama added another battlefront with Republicans this past Saturday, when he warned Republicans that he would not allow them to continue with their attempts to privatize Social Security. “One thing we can’t afford to do though is privatize Social Security,” President Obama stated in his Saturday radio address.

According to President Obama, it is “an ill-conceived idea that would add trillions of dollars to our budget deficit while tying your benefits to the whims of Wall Street traders and the ups and downs of the stock market.”

In 2004 Republicans tried to push for the privatization of Social Security by reelecting then-president George W. Bush.

Then, the plan for the partial privatization of Social Security (a mix of government contributions with private accounts) did not overcome the opposition of Democrats and labor unions.

Now, after the recent economic crisis and the resulting recession, Republicans are back to pushing for the privatization of Social Security and once again they have cited Chile’s pension program as an example.

“A few years ago, we had a debate about privatizing Social Security. And I’d have thought that debate would’ve been put to rest once and for all by the financial crisis we’ve just experienced,” Obama remembered correctly.

President Obama asserted, “I’d have thought, after being reminded how quickly the stock market can tumble, after seeing the wealth people worked a lifetime to earn wiped out in a matter of days, that no one would want to place bets with Social Security on Wall Street; that everyone would understand why we need to be prudent about investing the retirement money of tens of millions of Americans.”

President Obama declared, “Some Republican leaders in Congress don’t seem to have learned any lessons from the past few years. They’re pushing to make privatizing Social Security a key part of their legislative agenda if they win a majority in Congress this fall.”