USA Today: Candidates Should Join the Social Security Debate

August 6, 2003

An editorial in the USA Today offers advice for hopeful Democratic presidential candidates. Instead of satisfying those on the far left, the article suggests to woo voters with a moderate platform. The column cites the political successes of former president Bill Clinton's and late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's (D-N.Y.) moderate democratic stances and their compromise on Social Security reform.

The column states: "Some centrist Democrats such as the late senator Daniel Moynihan championed bold reforms that would let workers invest some of their Social Security taxes in the private market. He said it would help low-income families build wealth. Clinton proposed grafting a new subsidized savings plan onto Social Security. So far, no Democratic presidential candidate has proposed meaningful reforms of Social Security, which faces long-term financing problems projected to result from the giant baby-boom generation's retirement."

Indeed, a perusal of the Democratic candidates' campaign websites will show that their reform proposals are vague at best. According to his campaign website, "Senator [John] Edwards strongly opposes recent efforts to privatize Social Security…." On the other hand, he rejects efforts to "save" the system, such as raising the retirement age.

John Kerry's website offers similar rhetoric. Kerry pledges to "continue to fight for Social Security." He "believes we must take care of both those dependent on Social Security now and those who will need it in the future." While those seem to be nice intentions, Kerry gives no proposal for making them work.

Howard Dean's position on Social Security, as described in a profile of the candidate by In These Times, is not much more thorough: "Dean rejects privatizing Social Security, and he argues that the federal government should give refundable tax credits to low-income workers to invest for their retirement."

Speaking at the Arizona Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, Dick Gephardt defended the current pay-as-you-go system: "You must understand that Social Security is a contract between the working generation and the retired generation…." Nowhere in his speech did Gephardt acknowledge the changing demographics that invite the fiscal crisis in the future, nor did he explain how the "contract" could be sustained.

Unlike other candidates, Dennis Kucinich has taken a clear stance on fixing Social Security: Do nothing. On his campaign website, he defies well-known data and claims: "Social Security's finances are more secure than ever. The fund is solid through the year 2042, without any changes whatsoever."

While these candidates have made clear what they would not like to do with Social Security—make a transition to personal retirement accounts—not one of them has declared what they would like to do to ensure that the retirees of tomorrow will be able to afford a comfortable retirement.

Furthermore, given recent support of a more personalized Social Security system, personal accounts not only offer a legitimate plan to bring to the debate, they might be a winning ticket in the primaries.

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