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Breaking News from America's Progressive Community... Latest
Releases
The press releases posted here have been provided to NewsCenter by the one of the many progressive organizations we have selected to participate. If you would like more information about this press release, you should contact the organization directly. |
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| JANUARY
19, 1999 10:10 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare Kris Geddings, 703-709-6680 |
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| President is Right in Rejecting Privatization and Focusing on Seniors' Needs | ||||
| WASHINGTON
- January 19 - President Clinton was applauded tonight by the nation's second-largest
seniors organization for rejecting privatized individual accounts as a
reform for Social Security, and, instead, focusing on several of the real
needs faced by America.
"The President has been under great pressure for months by critics of Social Security to abandon the system and partially replace it with privatized investment accounts," said Martha McSteen, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. "He is 100 percent right to have resisted the call for privatization at the expense of Social Security," McSteen said. "There no doubt will be proponents on Capitol Hill who will continue to press for privatizing the system, but it's increasingly clear that their plans would jeopardize the retirement security of millions of Americans." McSteen said the President's proposal to create a new retirement savings account outside the Social Security System deserved serious consideration by Congress and would stimulate personal savings without harming Social Security. "The National Committee is also pleased by the President's focus on shoring up the Medicare trust fund and addressing the too-often punitive cost of many prescription drugs," McSteen said. She added that her organization is a long-standing supporter of eliminating the income limit on what seniors may earn before facing reductions in their Social Security benefits. "These are the real, kitchen-table issues -- how to earn a few extra dollars, how to make ends meet and pay for medications, how to afford long-term care -- that so many of America's seniors and their families confront and struggle with every day," McSteen said. "With today's population of seniors growing and with the baby boom retirement rapidly approaching, these are matters that deserve to be foremost on the country's attention and front and center on Congress's agenda," she said. The National Committee represents more than five million members
and
supporters nationwide. -0- |
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