Gore, Lieberman Differ On Retirement Age

August 17, 2000

As reported last week, Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Lieberman had been, until recently, a supporter of Social Security reform based upon personal retirement accounts. Lieberman has since retracted his support for that view.

But Lieberman continues to support keeping on the table the option of increasing the Social Security retirement age, an issue Vice President Gore used to strongly attack his primary opponent, former Sen. Bill Bradley. In November, for instance, Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said that Bradley "won't make firm a commitment to defending the current age for Social Security. We should keep that commitment." Bradley responded by saying that, "any time you put out a big idea to deal with a big problem, it's vulnerable to scare tactics. That is precisely what's going on here." In a weekend interview, Lieberman said, regarding a possible retirement age increase, "We should keep it on the table for the good reason that people are living longer." In a separate interview, Lieberman said, "There is very little you take off the table if you want to be an honest public official."

Following are excerpts from Lieberman's Sunday appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, where he was interviewed by host Tim Russert:

MR. RUSSERT: Social Security. A lot of talk about an interview you gave in the San Diego paper about privatizing Social Security. I want to focus on a vote, however, in May of 1996 when you and Bill Bradley and Pat Moynihan, the new Democrats, if you will, in the Senate, voted to...

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Isn't that great that we still consider Pat a new Democrat as he heads toward retirement? And he is.

MR. RUSSERT: But you voted then to take 2 percent of the payroll tax and put it into a private Social Security account and to raise the retirement age for Medicare and Social Security gradually to 70 by the year 2030. On this show in November, Al Gore went after Bill Bradley and just pummeled him on that vote saying, "You cannot consider raising retirement age for Medicare or Social Security. You cannot privatize Social Security." Lieberman was with Bradley. Do you still believe and will you argue in the inner councils that it is prudent to consider raising the retirement age for Medicare and Social Security gradually to 70 by the year 2030, the way you voted a few years ago?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Let me say first and come back, I guess, to something I said a few moments ago; that it is, again, a mark of Al Gore's strength of leadership that he didn't look for somebody who had 100 percent agreement with him. This is part of the relationship we've had. We've argued, we've debated, and I think that's what progress comes from, particularly the willingness to look at new ideas. I don't remember all the details of that particular--and, incidentally, Al has said to me, "We've got to continue to do that when we get elected, because that's how we're going to have a strong administration."

I don't remember the details of that vote, but part of it, I think, came from the fact that the Medicare trust fund, at that point, was thought to be about to go under in four years; very different from today, where the Medicare trust fund has a life span that is projected to go more than 20 years.

On the specific question of privatization of accounts, I was very interested in that as a way to improve the retirement benefit package and security of the American people. But as I continue to explore it, '97, '98 '99, I had a lot of meetings on it. Actually, Pat Moynihan and Bob Kerrey came to me at one point, I think in '98 or '99, asked me to co-sponsor a bill on it. By that time, I had decided it wouldn't work.

MR. RUSSERT: In April of '98, you were telling the San Diego paper it was going to happen, it was a good idea.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yeah. It must have been '99 that they came to me. And then in '99, also...

MR. RUSSERT: But you wrote an article in June, which was never published.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Right.

MR. RUSSERT: We just got a copy faxed to us by the Gore campaign--the Gore campaign came to you and asked you to write that, correct?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: No, actually--let me just go back a minute, Tim. I decided that the idea of privatizing Social Security, which I thought first was a good idea, ultimately would make the basic floor for retirement in our country, which is Social Security, insecure. It would, in George Bush's plan, take $ 1 trillion out of the Social Security trust fund, make it 10 or more years sooner that the fund would be in jeopardy and, in the end, interestingly--and I had so many meetings on this--when you get to the end of the line, what do the proponents do? They take these private accounts and the benefits, and they subtract that amount of money from the Social Security benefits so the average retiree doesn't have much more to live on. So I thought it was a risky scheme.

MR. RUSSERT: But didn't the Gore campaign come to you in June and ask you to write a piece?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: No. What happened, I was watching the debate unfold and Governor Bush's proposal, and Al had, "Let's protect Social Security." And he's got a great idea that the surplus allows: "Let's build on it for middle-class families. Tax incentives for personal retirement accounts." I called Elaine Kamarck, an old friend of mine from the Democratic Leadership Council, issues director of the Gore campaign, and I said, "You know, Elaine, I'm watching this, and I want to tell you, I've been through this process for the last three years." Incidentally, there's another vote in '99, where I specifically voted against a sense of the Senate resolution.

MR. RUSSERT: So it was your idea to write the article.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yes, it was.

MR. RUSSERT: And gradually raising the age of retirement for Medicare and Social Security, are you abandoning that as well?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: I think we may have to come back, but we don't have to do it now because the surplus has given us such an...

MR. RUSSERT: But we could keep it on the table?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: We should keep it on the table for the good reason that people are living longer, and, in fact...

MR. RUSSERT: The point is as the leader of the Democratic Leadership Conference, the centrist wing of the party, and John Breaux, who proceeded you...

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT: ...said that, "It seems that Bush has articulated ideas on Medicare, Social Security and education very close to the DLC." That's fair, isn't it?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Some; you got to look at them. I mean, but the problem continues to be in a lot of these cases that the Bush ideas kind of look good, but there's not much "there" there; there's not much detail. And he won't be able to afford any of these new ideas because he gives it all away in his tax cut that benefits the wealthy about 1,000 times more than the bottom 20 percent, 100 times more than the middle class.

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