Montpelier, VT - Candidate for U.S. Congress Peter Welch today pledged to fight attempts to privatize Social Security and advocated for maintaining Social Security as an essential economic safety net if elected in November.

Welch made this pledge as part of the third plank of his economic security platform. His first two initiatives were raising the federal minimum wage to Vermont,s level and making progress toward universal health care.

"Social security has been a fundamental component of our nation,s economic security for its citizens since the Great Depression. Every President since Roosevelt has supported Social Security as the foundation for economic security except our current President," said Welch.

Former President Bush rightly noted in his 1990 State of the Union Address, "The last thing we need to do is mess around with Social Security."

"Vermonters and Americans should make no mistake, the privatization agenda by President Bush and the Republican leaders in Congress is active, is real, and is wrong," charged Welch.

"Social Security has guaranteed a retirement benefit to every American for over seventy years. I will fight the ideological agenda for privatization to assure every American has a secure retirement."

President Bush recently snuck Social Security privatization into his 2007 federal budget and in mid-July's mid-session review of the budget, proposed spending $721 billion over the next ten years for privatization.

Welch noted that just this week in an interview with the Washington Times, Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner asserted that, "If I'm around in a leadership role come January, we're going to get serious about this," referring to a major overhaul of Social Security [7.31.06].

"The choice is clear," said Welch. "A Republican Congress offers a 'you are on your own' plan that will impose privatization upon American seniors. I reject their approach. I believe the current system of Social Security lives up to the Vermont philosophy that 'we are in it together.'"

Welch believes every retired American should be able to depend on the safety net Social Security provides. Privatization, he says, will increase financial risk, has been packaged with benefits cuts, hurts elderly women disproportionately, and sacrifices retirement income to administrative costs [House Committee on Ways and Means Minority Staff].

Privatization will eliminate the security in Social Security, put Wall Street investors in charge of the retirement of millions of Americans, and cost taxpayers over $700 billion over just seven-years, points out Welch [Washington Post, 2.8.06].

Welch noted the failed track record of this Congress and Administration with reforming government programs, citing the Medicare Part D program that bewildered seniors and sold-out taxpayers.

Welch pointed out that in May the Social Security Board of Trustees released the 66th annual report and reaffirmed Social Security does not face a near-term crisis. Welch also points out that just the cost of the tax cuts for the top 1 percent of Americans, those making over $400,000, is nearly as large as the trustees, estimate for the 75-year Social Security shortfall [Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 6.15.06].

"Preserving Social Security should be the goal, not dismantling it through privatization," said Welch, who supports creating a bipartisan commission similar to the one created by President Reagan and Speaker O'Neill charged with studying finance options for Social Security.