While Markets Reel From Disastrous Bush Economic Policies, McCain Wants to Gamble with Americans' Future on Wall Street

Denver, CO - This week's upheaval on Wall Street is yet another dramatic reminder of the risk the Bush-McCain plan to privatize Social Security poses to America's seniors and the economic security of our families. While the plan was defeated in 2005, Senator McCain wants to privatize Social Security, and put Americans' economic security in corporate hands, subjecting it to the kind of market volatility we've seen this week, and jeopardizing the well-being of those most affected by failed Bush-McCain economic policies: seniors.

"This week has been a sobering reminder of just how dangerous McCain's plan to privatize Social Security is for Coloradans and all Americans," said Pat Waak, Chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party. "The price of everything from gas to groceries is sky-rocketing, the cost of health care is soaring, and paychecks don't go as far as they used to.  In the face of this economic insecurity, John McCain wants to risk our money and our retirement in the stock market just as he worked to remove the protections on Wall Street that led to this week's crisis. Nothing could more clearly illustrate how McCain's re-warmed Bush plan for privatization leaves Coloradans at risk when they can least afford it."

For more than 70 years, Social Security has helped keep retirees, surviving spouses and children and the disabled from poverty, yet McCain called Social Security "a disgrace" and wants to revive Bush's risky scheme to privatize Social Security, even as the failure of two of the top four remaining investment banks this Monday makes clear just how great a gamble privatizing Social Security would be.

The Bush-McCain Social Security privatization scheme would end Social Security as Americans know it, blowing a hole in the federal budget and costing and initial $1 trillion just to transition to private accounts.  As Campaign for America's Future reported, currently, there are 616,000 Coloradans relying on Social Security, the most effective anti-poverty program in our country since its inception.  If McCain's privatization plan succeeded, we could expect 94,000 Coloradans to be thrust into poverty as guaranteed benefits are cut by $262,206 over the course of a single recipient's lifetime.  The financial burden of health care, nutrition and housing for retirees and other beneficiaries would fall to the state and to our families and, McCain's privatization plan would endanger the $7.3 billion in annual funds from Social Security recipients upon which local businesses and the state government rely.

McCain is a cheerleader for privatization. In 2004, McCain claimed that Social Security could not be preserved for younger generations "without privatization." In 2005, McCain stumped with Bush in a failed attempt to sell their risky Social Security privatization scheme.  Americans said no to the Bush-McCain plan. But now McCain is back with more of the same, even as the turmoil on Wall Street exposes just how risky his proposal would be.