“With George W. Bush, Wall Street derivatives trader Pat Toomey led the charge to privatize Social Security, but unlike many Republican politicians who have backed away from the plan, Toomey is still fighting to put seniors’ retirement savings in the hands of Wall Street bankers. It’s a plan that Pennsylvania seniors can’t afford,” said Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman, Jim Burn.
Today, an article in the Allentown Morning Call emphasized that Wall Street derivatives trader Pat Toomey still supports Social Security privatization.
WASHINGTON – When George W. Bush proposed privatizing Social Security during his presidency, one of the most vocal supporters of the plan was former Lehigh Valley Congressman Pat Toomey.
Toomey, then president of the fiscally conservative Club for Growth, became a spokesman of sorts for Bush’s proposal to allow workers to invest payroll taxes in private individual accounts. He spearheaded an ad campaign in 2005 to promote the cause for reforming retirement savings this way.
Now Toomey is running for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, and Democrats are hoping Social Security’s widespread popularity will turn voters away from Republicans in the bitter midterm election this fall.
Privatizing Social Security was a tough sell before the recession, and it will probably be an even tougher one now. Republicans have largely distanced themselves from the issue this election cycle. Toomey has not backed away from the idea, but it’s not a central tenet of his campaign, as it was when he was a House member.
Earlier this week in an interview with Real Clear Politics, Wall Street derivatives trader Pat Toomey tried to gloss over his long record of fighting to privatize Social Security and put seniors’ retirement savings in the hands of Wall Street bankers, but he referred to his plan to privatize Social Security as “a very important start.”
RCP: Your campaign website, under “spending,” complains of “wasteful pork projects, multiple bailouts, the so-called stimulus, and new government programs.” But what about entitlements?
Toomey: You know, I’ve always said that we need to reform our big entitlement programs. These programs are not sustainable in their current form and so we’re going to have to put them on a secure footing. That’s what we have to do.
RCP: OK, how do we do that? Do we raise the retirement age? Do we cut benefits?
Toomey: I’ve got a whole chapter in a book that I wrote that deals with how I think, one of the ways I think we could reform Social Security to make it viable. So I have provided great detail on that whole idea. That would be a very important start.
The chapter in his book that Wall Street derivative trader Pat Toomey referred to was titled, “Personal Accounts Lead to Personal Prosperity,” which advocated for privatization.
“From his time fighting alongside George W. Bush to his work as the leader of the Wall Street-backed Club for Growth, Toomey has long fought to put senior’s retirement savings in the hands of Wall Street bankers. It’s a fight he continues to this day,” said Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman, Jim Burn.
