OH-16: Schuring Sides with Social Security Privatizers

Canton, OH - Kirk Schuring is getting his Social Security policy guidance from one of the leading groups behind President Bush's failed attempt to privatize the program.

In a press release issued on October 6, Schuring's campaign cites http://www.socialsecurity.org/, the website of the "Project on Social Security Choice", and proudly notes that Schuring used the group's talking points in his appearance before the Greater Canton Veterans Council on October 4.

A 2004 Los Angeles Times article quotes the director of the Project on Social Security Choice as one of the major supporters of President Bush's plan to shift Social Security savings into Wall Street investment accounts. The New York Times reported that the group was actually called the "Project on Social Security Privatization" until the name was changed to make it more politically palatable.

16th District congressional candidate John Boccieri asked today:

"How out of touch can Kirk Schuring be that in the middle of a global financial meltdown, he's getting his Social Security policies from a group that advocates gambling away our retirement on the stock market?"

Boccieri added:

"This raises serious questions about his commitment to protecting Social Security, especially given his poor record on seniors' issues in the State Legislature."

In Columbus, Schuring has voted to strip half a billion dollars from state pension funds while raising the retirement age, and was the only State Representative to vote against creating the Golden Buckeye program that negotiates lower prescription drug prices for Ohio seniors. (Schuring refused to support the program after his amendment to released participant names to the public was rejected.)

Schuring has strained throughout the campaign to conceal his willingness to turn America's most successful social safety net over to Wall Street - but this is not the first time he has let his true feelings show. In a meeting with local reporters at the Alliance Review on August 14, Schuring said that "everything should be on the table" when it comes to Social Security.

Boccieri's Social Security facts, which the Schuring campaign attacked in their press release, come from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. The Akron Beacon Journal cited the same information as recently as August.

BACKGROUND:

"The Cato Institute, a libertarian research center, established a Project on Social Security Privatization in 1995, but in 2002 it was renamed the Project on Social Security Choice. ...'Republicans in Congress do not like the word 'privatization' because it does not poll well,' said Michael Tanner, director of the project." ["AARP Opposes Bush Plan to Replace Social Security With Private Accounts," New York Times, 11/12/2004]

"President Bush on Thursday set the stage for a monumental legislative battle by placing Social Security reform at the top of his second-term agenda... 'It’s going to be an enormously bloody fight,” predicted Michael Tanner, director of the Project on Social Security Choice at the libertarian Cato Institute. “But the political climate really has changed, and it is possible to do this now.' " ["Privatized Accounts Moved to ‘Fast Track’," Los Angeles Times, 11/5/04]

The website description for www.socialsecurity.org - apparently unchanged since 2004 - invites visitors to "Read about privatization and benefits of moving current Social Security systems capital into private pension funds." [Page source, http://www.socialsecurity.org, accessed 10/7/08]

In their October 6 press release, the Schuring campaign quotes the Project on Social Security Choice's claim that the Social Security Trust Fund "has no money in it and it never did." This is a resurrection of George W. Bush's widely-mocked claim in 2005 that Social Security was nothing but "I.O.U.s" inside a "filing cabinet." As the Akron Beacon Journal recently reported, "Bush's statements left many economists shaking their heads..." ["Social Security more solvent than most Americans realize," Akron Beacon Journal, 8/24/08]

In the state legislature last year, Schuring voted to strip half a billion dollars from state pension funds while raising the retirement age. [127 SB 148] He was the only State Representative to vote against creating the Golden Buckeye program that negotiates lower prescription drug prices for Ohio seniors. [124 HB 4] Schuring refused to support the discount drug program after an amendment he sponsored to release Golden Buckeye cardholder names to the public was rejected.

In an interview in Alliance on August 14, Schuring told reporters and editors from Dix Communications, "I think everything should be on the table" when it comes to Social Security reform. ["Kirk Schuring on Social Security/Medicare," Dix Communications, 9/5/08]

The 2006 Congressional Budget Office report cited by Boccieri at the Greater Canton Veterans Council forum projected that Social Security will remain solvent until 2046. ["Updated Long-Term Projections for Social Security," Congressional Budget Office, 6/06] A newly-released CBO report actually extends the program's projected solvency to 2049. ["Updated Long-Term Projections for Social Security," Congressional Budget Office, 8/08]