For Immediate Release: Wednesday, February 2, 2005
Contact: Bob Weiner or Rebecca Vander Linde 301-283-0821/202-329-1700
CONGRESSIONAL EXPERT AVAILABLE TO
REBUT BUSH ON SOCIAL SECURITY WED-FRI:
Former House Aging Committee Director under Chairman Claude Pepper, Bob Weiner, at 301-283-0821/202-329-1700:
“CRY-WOLF, GRANNY-YOU’RE-ON-YOUR-OWN, WALL STREET GIVEAWAY”
(Washington, DC) – Former House Aging Committee Director under seniors champion Chairman Claude Pepper, Robert Weiner, will be available to rebut President Bush’s State of the Union assertions and proposals concerning Social Security. Bush will make Social Security “personal accounts” a focus of the State of the Union Wednesday night and has scheduled “Social Security conversations” Thursday and Friday around the country.
Weiner, who has been serving as a Democratic National Committee Radio-tv expert on Social Security over the past year, has challenged the President on the “crisis”, “private”, and “bankrupt” scare tactics of his proposals. Now, under proper pressure, Weiner says, the President has simply “camouflaged” his recent words by changing them to “problem”, “personal”, and “finances”.
“He will do anything to appeal to the big corporate/mega-bank elements of his constituency base and to try to get something passed for them when there is no real need,” Weiner says.
“His proposal is a Cry-Wolf, Granny-You’re-On-Your-Own, Wall Street and American Bankers Association Giveaway, no matter how he now has been forced to camouflage it. The system is not bankrupt -- it’s solvent at least through 2052 and even then, by law, it will pay at least the 80% of benefits it can afford which are more than current benefits. The president has distorted the issue to generate support among his big corporate and banker friends,” Weiner asserts.
Weiner now heads up a Washington public affairs issues think tank, Robert Weiner Associates (). In addition to serving as Pepper’s House Aging Committee Chief of Staff, Weiner has worked for Congressmen Charles Rangel and John Conyers, and as a public affairs director in the Clinton White House.
According to Weiner, “The people who will collect the fees – estimated at almost a TRILLION dollars -- have given tens of millions of dollars to Republican coffers. The proposals will, as the Wall Street Journal said yesterday, simply move funds from one pot to another and do nothing to erase the deficit, while costing Two Trillion dollars of additional U.S. deficit to replace.”
“The latest iteration of Bush/Republican proposals are age-baiting, race-baiting, and sex-baiting. Moreover, pulling funds from “security” to risky “investments” does nothing but create more problems and more risk, regardless of the president’s new-found assurances. If you take the most secure 401K’s based on the Fortune 500 over the last five years, the market has gone from 12,000 to 7,000 to 10,600 now -- and that’s even before losses to inflation – so people have crashed, burned, and still lost some 25%. That’s real food off seniors’ tables from a Social Security program that has successfully reduced poverty among the elderly from 40% to 10%, or by 1/3 overall. Do we really want to go back to where we were before?” Weiner asks.
As he has in other recent radio-TV interviews, Weiner will also be able to comment on other areas of the Bush agenda and speech.
Recent Social Security statements, opeds, and media commentaries including Miami Herald oped-by Robert Weiner are available at:
(Weiner statement)
(Weiner Miami Herald oped, recent RNN TV interview transcript, and press report of October, 2004 Pepper Foundation Social Security forum organized by Weiner)
(Weiner radio-TV interview listings and subjects)
(brief biography)
Source: Robert Weiner Associates 301-283-0821/202-329-1700