For Immediate Release: 12:01 AM Saturday, November 1, 2003 Contact: Bob Weiner/Alexandra Boyne 301-283-0821 or 202-329-1700

(Washington, DC) – Bob Weiner, the former Chief of Staff of the House Aging Committee under Claude Pepper, asserts that the Social Security deficit – one of the major issues in the current presidential campaign, raised by both parties and newspapers across the country – is a "myth". In an op-ed in the Miami Herald today and in letters to President Bush, Democratic presidential candidates, and congressional leaders, Weiner points out that the Trust Fund is solvent for 39 years, that "baby boomers aren’t booming with babies themselves" so the fund will actually be even more solvent with fewer withdrawals down the road.

Weiner asserts that what many political leaders and "flamethrowers" are actually doing is "using solvent Social Security money to reduce the overall federal deficit." Weiner is calling for the same "courage" today that Pepper displayed 25 years ago in fighting against benefit reductions such as delay of eligibility dates, lower cost of living allowances, and voluntarizing the program.

In today’s Miami Herald ("The Myth of the Social Security Deficit: We Need Claude Pepper’s Courage Now"), and in his letter to President Bush, congressional leaders, and all nine Democratic presidential candidates, Weiner states:

• "The reality, as the Social Security trustees pointed out in their annual report this year, is that Social Security is solvent for at least 39 years—it actually increased by a year last year.
• "What those who advocate benefit reductions really intend, unless they just don’t get the reality of social security solvency, is using solvent Social Security money to reduce the overall federal deficit.
• "The baby boom is a short transitional factor. The ‘boomers’ aren’t booming with babies themselves. The high birthrate of 2.9 that they represent (births from 1940-1969) is followed by their own parenting rate of 2.1 per woman (1970-2000). Moreover, since 1990, there is a 10% increase in women having no children at all. The Social Security trust fund will later be making money by leaps and bounds with fewer people withdrawing from it
• "People are choosing to work longer. The number of people over 65 working or seeking employment has grown by 50 per cent since 1980, also generating fewer people drawing social security and less drag on the system.
• "A system repair would be temporary and would amount to 1/3 of the Bush tax cuts even if the trust fund needs it in some 40 years (if the economy improves it can moot even that need). Even if a temporary budget fix is needed way down the road, the social security trust funds will later be making money again.

• "Ironically, the federal budget’s insolvency is what is now certain for several years to come. Yet miraculously, congress is able to fix the federal budget every such year there is a deficit—for instance this year’s $400 billion shortfall – by declaring that we’ll just eat the deficit."

Weiner says he remembers "Pepper’s outrage in 1978 at Carter Commerce Secretary Juanita Kreps’ statement reported in the press about increasing the retirement age to 68 for full Social Security retirement benefits. Pepper demanded and got a meeting of Kreps with himself and House Social Security Chairman James Burke (D-MA). Senator Pepper kept saying he and Burke would ‘fight it to our death.’ Kreps asked, ‘Even (delaying the start) to the year 2000?’ Both members vehemently exclaimed, ‘Yes!’ Kreps finally responded, ‘Well, I haven’t made the proposal anyway.’ That’s how it’s done, and that’s the courage we need from somewhere now," Weiner asserts.

Weiner pointed out that one-third of Iowa caucus voters will be over 65. There are now 35 million Americans over 65 – one in every eight persons. In addition, they vote in the highest percentages of any age group.

So Weiner says, "It is time to quit scaring our seniors with false claims. Social Security should remain the third rail of American politics – it should stay untouched. Economic columnists like Robert Samuelson (The baby boomers ‘are in a conspiracy against our children’), congressmen like Nick Smith (R-MI) (‘Insolvency is certain’), and national political leaders from President Bush on down advocating benefit reductions, delays, or privatization are just creating an excuse to fund the insolvent federal budget deficit."

"The idea of a ‘lock box’ is not absurd as some paint it. Social Security is just fine; what is scary on this Halloween is the words of our political leaders," Weiner concludes.