Don't Privatize Social Security

The Bush administration's attempt to privatize Social Security failed in 2005.

The 2005 proposal would have forced drastic cuts in retirement benefits for America’s workers—whether or not they chose to take part in the scheme.

Take a look and see how that plan would have shortchanged your retirement.

Privatizing Social Security Would:

• Slash guaranteed benefits by as much as $9,000 per year.

   

• Take away 70 cents in retirement benefits for every $1 in a private account and return the money to government coffers.

   

• Prohibit you from controlling the money in your private accounts. Politicians will pick Wall Street firms to control your investment accounts, a process corrupted by politics.

   

• Saddle our children with $4.9 trillion in debt over the next 20 years alone, most of which we would owe to foreign countries.

The Bush administration's plan to privatize Social Security would make working families’ retirement problems worse, not better. But it would give billions of dollars in privatized account management fees to rich Wall Street outfits—the same ones that can afford high-priced lobbyists on Capitol Hill.