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Social Security Reform Moves to Senate Today, “With
and Without Personal Accounts”
April 26, 2005 – The debate over Social Security
reform will take a big step today toward defining the issues as the
Senate Committee on Finance opens a hearing entitled “Proposals To
Achieve Sustainable Solvency, With and Without Personal Accounts.”
In announcing this hearing, the second this year by
the committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman, said witnesses will
present or comment on a series of proposals that have been analyzed by
the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Chief Actuary and
determined to achieve sustainable solvency.
In February, Grassley convened a Finance Committee
hearing at which Douglas Holtz-Eakin, director of the Congressional
Budget Office, and Stephen Goss, chief actuary, Social Security
Administration, testified that Social Security’s long-term financial
challenges have been known for decades.
“I’m working to produce bipartisan legislation to
preserve Social Security,” Grassley declared.
“As part of that, Senator Baucus (Max Baucus,
ranking Democrat) and I agree it’s important to look at the proposals
that achieve sustainable solvency, with and without personal accounts.
We need a good understanding of our options before we move forward. I
hope to have a bipartisan proposal before the committee this summer.”
In March, Baucus issued a statement saying, “I
cannot support a plan to privatize Social Security. Privatizing Social
Security would only cut reliable, crucial benefits, and add trillions of
dollars to the national debt.”
The committee will convene its today at 10 a.m., in
628 Dirksen Senate Office Building.
NOTE: The statements of the witnesses are now available -
Click
Here
Tuesday’s hearing will feature the following
witnesses:
--Robert C. Pozen, Chairman, MFS Investment
Management, Boston, Mass.;
--Michael Tanner, Director, Project on Social
Security Choice, Cato Institute, Washington, D.C.;
--Peter Ferrara, Senior Fellow, Institute for
Policy Innovation, Director of the Social Security Project, Free
Enterprise Fund, Washington, D.C.;
--Peter R. Orszag, Joseph A. Pechman Senior Fellow,
Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.; and
--Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family
Economic Security, National Women’s Law Center, Washington, D.C.
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