Proposal to privatize Social Security rears its ugly head again

In a column by Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times the Campaign for America's Future's co-director Roger Hickey is quoted about Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan's positions on Social Security and the possible re-appearance of a debate about privatization of Social Security.

Hilzik writes, "One would have thought that this proposal was done in by two major stock market crashes since 2000, not to mention the generally noisome odor arising from almost everything that Wall Street has touched in recent years. Yet ever so stealthily it's creeping back into the public debate via the presidential campaign.

"Both members of the Republican ticket, Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), have expressed great enthusiasm for the idea in the past; in 2004, Ryan even sponsored a bill in Congress that was so reliant on private accounts that it was rejected by the Bush White House as too extreme.

"Vice President Joe Biden entered the lists last week. At a campaign stop, he announced, "I guarantee you, flat guarantee you, there will be no changes in Social Security." That's as ringing an endorsement of the program as any uttered by a politician in years.

"Biden's words heartened Social Security advocates who have gotten accustomed to waffling from the Obama White House over whether cuts in Social Security might be part of a `grand bargain' with congressional Republicans on the federal deficit. Though it's never entirely plain when Biden is talking off the cuff as opposed to expressing administration dogma, they're taking his statement at face value.

"`The good news is they haven't been walking it back,' Roger Hickey, president of the progressive Campaign for America's Future, told me. He observed that the last time Biden was thought to have spoken out of turn, by endorsing gay marriage, Obama promptly followed his lead."

To read the rest of the column by Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times visit: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20120821,0,1818705.column