Transcript of Lieberman-Cheney Exchange on Social Security From Thursday's

October 10, 2000

BERNIE SHAW (Moderator): This question is for you, Senator.

We all know Social Security is the backbone of the retirement system in our nation. Can either of you pledge tonight categorically that no one will lose benefits under your plans?

LIEBERMAN: Yes, indeed. I can pledge to the American people categorically that no one will lose benefits under our plan for Social Security as far forward as 2054.

And let me come back and say, Bernie, that Al Gore and I view Social Security as probably the best thing the government did in the second half--or the last century. It has created a floor under which seniors cannot fall. And so many of them depend on it for their basic living, for their livelihood.

It is critically important to protect it. That's why Al and I have committed to putting that Social Security surplus in a lockbox, not touching it. And that's what allows us to keep Social Security solvent to 2054.

Our opponents have an idea for privatizing Social Security that will jeopardize Social Security payments to recipients. And I looked at this idea, and if I may use an oil industry analogy, which is to say that sometimes--as you know, Dick, better than I--you've got to drill deep to discover whether there's oil in a well.

For a while, I was drilling into this idea of privatization of Social Security, and the deeper I got, the drier the well became. And it seemed to me at the end that what it was going to do was dry up Social Security.

It requires taking as much as a trillion dollars out of the Social Security fund. The independent analysts have said that would put the fund out of money in 2023, or if it's not out of money, benefits will have to be cut by over 50 percent. That's just not worth doing.

Al Gore and I are going to guarantee Social Security and add to it the retirement savings plan that I mentioned earlier, which will help middle class families looking forward have not only Social Security but a superb extra retirement account as well. Social Security-plus from us, with all respect, Social Security-minus from the Bush-Cheney ticket.

CHENEY: You won't be surprised, Bernie, if I disagree with Joe's description of our program.

The fact of the matter is the Social Security system's in trouble. It's been a fantastic program. It's been there for 65 years. It's provided benefits for senior citizens over that period of time, for my parents. It means a great deal to millions of Americans. And Governor Bush and I want to make absolutely certain that the first thing we do is guarantee the continuation of the those payments, those benefits, and keep those promises that were made.

But if you look down the road, and if you're say 30 years old today, and I have two daughters about that age, they seriously question whether or not there will be any system left for them. And that's because the demographics that are at work out there. And it's almost an iron law: we know how many people there are. We know when they're going to reach retirement age.

We know when that baby boom generation's coming along. We know how long people are likely to live after that. That's going to drive the system into bankruptcy unless we reform it and deal with it.

The reform we would like to offer is to allow our young people to begin to take a portion of the payroll tax, 2 percent of it, and invest it in a personal retirement account. That does several things.

First of all, it gives them a stake in the Social Security system. That becomes their property. They own it. They can pass it on to their kids if they want. They don't have that kind of equity in Social Security today.

Secondly, we can generate a higher return off that investment than you get in the existing system. Today, you get about a 2 percent return in your--what you pay in to Social Security; we can generate, we think, at least 6 percent. All the evidence shows at least three times what we're able to get now.

And long term, by generating a bigger return, we'll put additional funds into the system that will help us survive that crunch that's otherwise going to hit in the future.

Bottom line is, there's a choice here. With respect, frankly, to Al Gore and Joe's plan, they don't reform Social Security at all. They add another huge obligation on top of it that future generations will have to pay. They don't touch the basic system itself. They don't reform it. They don't save it. We have a plan to do that and a plan to give our young people choice and more control over their own lives.

SHAW: Time.

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