National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions this year introduced Social Security privatization legislation (HR 2109) that would “severely compromise" our ability to pay benefits to current seniors, according to the Social Security Chief Actuary. Which makes it particularly ironic that in his reaction to the American Jobs Act he would express worry about being able to pay for Social Security.
A closer look at both the American Jobs Act and Sessions’ own privatization legislation is revealing:
AMERICAN JOBS ACT: President Obama’s American Jobs Act temporarily uses a portion of Social Security payroll taxes to stimulate demand and create jobs, but it also fully and immediately replaces the lost income for the Social Security Trust Fund. As a result, it will have no effect on Social Security’s ability to pay earned benefits, now or in the future.
GOP SOCIAL SECURITY PRIVIZATION LEGISLATION: By contrast, the Sessions Social Security privatization legislation (H.R. 2109), which he introduced with several of his Republican leadership colleagues, really would affect our ability to pay for Social Security. H.R. 2109 would divert so much income out of the Social Security Trust Fund that Social Security’s Chief Actuary recently warned that if enacted, our ability to pay benefits to current seniors would be “severely compromised." The Actuary also said if the Sessions bill were enacted, “Our year of trust fund exhaustion would certainly come to be much sooner than 2036."
Ironically, diverting money from the Social Security Trust Fund and borrowing from the Treasury to replace it has been a staple of Republican policy proposals for years. President Bush’s Social Security plan required $5 trillion in new debt to replace funds diverted from the Social Security Trust Fund for private accounts, and the current leading plan among House Republicans (proposed by Budget Chairman Paul Ryan) requires $1.2 trillion in new debt to replace lost Trust Fund contributions. But it is particularly stunning for Congressman Sessions to suddenly express concern about the Social Security Trust Fund, since his bill doesn’t even bother to borrow money to make Social Security whole.
