Sununu co-sponsored Social Security privatization bill

By Norma Love
October 15, 2002

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Sununu co-sponsored legislation that would have required people under age 55 to invest part of their Social Security taxes in private investment accounts, an anti-privatization group said Tuesday.

Sununu repeatedly has said he supports voluntary investments for younger workers and does not support changing benefits for anyone who is retired now or who will retire in the next 20 years

''This isn't a perfect bill,'' he said Tuesday of the bill that never made it out of committee. ''It gets the debate going. We shouldn't be afraid of ideas.''

He said the bill was designed to keep government from borrowing the Social Security surplus to spend on other programs.

The pro-Democrat group Campaign for America's Future said Sununu signed onto the bill two years ago with 38 other House Republicans. They said the bill never got out of the House Ways and Means Committee, but his sponsorship shows his longtime commitment to privatizing Social Security.

The group has been running a television ad criticizing Sununu's support for privatization.

Meanwhile, the League of Conservation Voters and the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League also are attacking Sununu's record on environmental and abortion rights issues. They launched ads Tuesday.

''I want to give a warning to New Hampshire voters,'' state Rep. Rogers Johnson, R-Stratham, said at a news conference organized by Republicans to respond. ''Beware of what these liberal special interest groups have to say. Voters should know that Jeanne Shaheen is importing millions of dollars in out-of-state money to dump lies and distortions on New Hampshire.''

Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, who opposes Sununu for the Senate seat, opposes privatizing Social Security. She says it would undermine the trust fund, forcing Congress to cut the guaranteed benefit or raise the retirement age.

Shaheen has hit Sununu hard on the issue in speeches and ads.

''Jeanne Shaheen has no plan, no ideas. She's afraid to stand up and talk about ways to modernize Social Security,'' Sununu said.

Sununu said he co-sponsored the bill in question to spark debate over fixing the system. The bill would have required workers under 55 to invest some of their Social Security dollars.

Nevertheless, Sununu said he actually supports voluntary investments for younger workers. He does not support changing benefits for anyone who is retired now or who will retire in the next 20 years.

Sununu said he is willing to lend support to ideas aimed at modernizing and strengthening the system something Shaheen won't do.

''Her plan is very clear,'' replied her spokesman, Colin VanOstern. ''First, stop stealing from the Social Security trust fund. Second, don't use Social Security solvency as an excuse to privatize.''

Sununu spokeswoman Julie Teer said the bill would not have cut benefits, but would have guaranteed any surplus would be safeguarded.

''There is no cut in benefits,'' she said. ''This deals specifically with the surplus.''

The plan was known as the Personal Lockbox Act of 2000. A Social Security Administration analysis concluded that if the bill passed, the trust fund would be insolvent in 2032, or seven years earlier than had been forecast under the current system.

Under the plan, workers still would have gotten a separate, guaranteed benefit, but it would have been reduced based on the assumption workers would earn about 3 percent more than inflation on their private accounts, said Hans Riemer, a policy analyst for the Washington-based group. If workers failed to earn an investment return that exceeded government bonds, they would end up with lower benefits than under the current system.

''Most people do a terrible job investing,'' said Roger Hickey of the Campaign for America's Future. ''It's almost built in that low-income people would not do well under this system.''