[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 14 (Thursday, February 10, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H526]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 NO TO PRICE INDEXING AND PRIVATIZATION

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. Social Security benefits have steadily increased over 
the years because they have long been calculated by indexing them to 
wage increases which on the average go up 3.6 percent a year, so Social 
Security benefits increase with rising wages.
  The administration wants to change all of that. They want to index 
Social Security benefits according to price increases, not wages. As a 
result, millions of future retirees will see their future Social 
Security benefits reduced as much as 40 percent because prices do not 
increase as fast as wages.
  Let me give an example. If you began work in 1959, retired in 2003 at 
age 65, under wage indexing where benefits rise with rising wages, you 
get $1,158 a month. Under price indexing, your benefits would be 
frozen. You would get only $701 a month. So there would be a 40 percent 
cut in benefits with price indexing and a person would lose over 
$100,000 in retirement benefits over a lifetime.
  Why the switch to price indexing? Because privatization is going to 
create an additional shortfall. The administration is going to have to 
borrow money to set up private accounts, and the shortfall is going to 
be for 45 years. They are going to have to borrow up to $15 trillion. 
They are going to try to get the money off the backs of America's 
retirees. It is wrong. No to privatization and no to price indexing.

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