Blog: $2400 to Schakowsky if She can Prove Social Security Lie

Statement

My opponent is trying to scare seniors by sending a mailing around the district that claims I want to privatize Social Security, taking benefits away from seniors and gambling them on Wall Street. The Democrats tried the same thing in the neighboring 10th district before the lie was debunked by local journalists. Now they are doing the same thing here in the 9th--and it's no small wonder: the strategy was devised by Jan Schakowsky's husband, political strategist and convicted felon Robert Creamer.

On August 16, 2010, Creamer wrote a column for the Huffington Post, claiming that Paul Ryan and other Republicans are planning to "privatize" Social Security and send the Social Security Trust Fund (such as it is) to Wall Street. He's been advising Democrats to use that claim to keep their supporters from abandoning them at the polls.

Here's what Ryan's Roadmap (which I support) actually says:

"Those [under 55] who choose the personal account option [for Social Security] will have the opportunity to begin investing a significant portion of their payroll taxes into a series of funds managed by the U.S. government. The system would closely resemble the investment options available to Members of Congress and Federal employees through the Thrift Savings Plan [TSP]." (http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/Plan/#retirementsecurity)

That's not "privatizing" Social Security. Even if we were to consider a personal retirement account a "private" account for some purposes, it is government-managed, partial, optional, and only covers younger workers who haven't retired yet.

Schakowsky can't prove that I ever advocated gambling Social Security funds on Wall Street--because I haven't. Her mailing cites a speech I gave on "9/2/10"--but I never gave a speech on that date. I gave a speech the previous day at my luncheon with Paul Ryan, during which I explained why I support his plan. I never once spoke about "privatizing" Social Security or sending retirees' money to Wall Street, and neither did he.

Schakowsky is lying--and if she isn't, I'll donate $2400 to her campaign, so she can send out more attacks!

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