Legislation, Coalitions Target Emerging Retirement Crisis  

(Washington, D.C.)  The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today participated in two separate news conferences on Capitol Hill showcasing efforts to avert the looming retirement crisis.  Rep. Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.), along with other members of Congress and leaders in the Alliance for Retirement Prosperity, introduced new legislation to give workers the chance to invest a significant part of their Social Security payroll taxes.  CCAGW also joined more than a dozen other organizations representing women, farmers, consumers, minorities, businesses and taxpayers to launch Americans for Secure Retirement (ASR) to call on Congress to give people more control over their retirement.  

In a news conference on Capitol Hill, ASR and members of Congress called attention to the growing concern that many of the nation’s 77 million baby boomers could suffer dramatic declines in their standard of living in retirement.  With the support of the broad-based coalition, Representatives Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.), John Tanner (D-Tenn.), Phil English (R-Pa.) and Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) introduced H.R. 4849, The Retirement Security for Life Act of 2004, a bill that aims to ensure a steady income for life by empowering individuals in their own retirement planning.

“Most of our elected leaders either deny or completely ignore what is potentially the most devastating problem facing the nation – the Social Security time bomb,” CCAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “Only fundamental reform involving personal retirement accounts or outright privatization will offer today’s workers a chance for a livable retirement income.”  

Americans for Secure Retirement also launched a new web site (www.paycheckforlife.org) and advertising campaign to educate Americans about the emerging retirement crisis and drum up support for the legislation.  H.R. 4849 is designed to encourage workers and retirees to turn to products like annuities that make steady payments for life.  The bill is needed, supporters said, because many workers have not planned adequately for their retirement.  If large numbers of senior citizens experience a decline in their standard of living, they’ll turn to government relief programs and further strain federal and state budgets.

Rep. Ryan’s legislation to reform and improve Social Security gives workers the chance to invest a significant part of their payroll taxes in tax-free personal accounts.  CCAGW agrees with Ryan that in addition to providing substantially higher benefits to workers, these accounts will enable Congress to eliminate Social Security deficits over time, without benefit cuts or tax increases, even paving the way for the ultimate reduction of the payroll tax.  

“These efforts hopefully signal a renewed push for Social Security reform on Capitol Hill – where it has languished near the bottom of the legislative agenda for years,” Schatz concluded.  “Most politicians live in a dream world of denial.  An endless cycle of benefits cuts can be avoided if elected officials embrace the economically feasible, politically popular solution of personal retirement accounts. ”

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.