Michaud backs bill to safeguard Social Security

BANGOR – Decrying what he sees as federal efforts that would ultimately shut down the national Social Security program, U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud said Thursday that he will soon submit a bill for a constitutional amendment to safeguard the funds so many seniors depend on.

Michaud, a Democrat representing Maine’s 2nd District, said he will submit the bill next Tuesday when Congress reconvenes and that he will seek co-sponsors and support for the amendment, the only way to secure Social Security, he said.

Speaking to reporters and residents of the Bangor House, a retirement facility, Michaud said that time after time, the government has chipped away at Social Security, raiding its funds for other uses. And at a time when the system needs strengthening, the Bush administration and congressional leaders are pushing forward with privatization that will undermine and debilitate the system, bringing a financial crisis closer to reality, he said.

“It actually brings our funding crisis decades earlier than what is projected under the status quo,” Michaud said.

Michaud’s constitutional amendment would guarantee that there would always be a Social Security, a non-private program that would provide benefits that at least keep pace with the cost of living and are never reduced.

Michaud acknowledged that passing a constitutional amendment likely will be difficult, but that this issue reaches the level of needing such an amendment.

“I am generally skeptical of new constitutional amendments, but this is a cause that definitely needs one and this is the only way, the only way, seniors can be sure,” Michaud said.

Given the fluctuations of the stock market, especially in light of lackluster performances in recent years and accounting and business scandals like Enron, Michaud said, privatization only creates more uncertainty for Social Security recipients, who currently number about 250,000 in Maine.

Former Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly, a supporter of Michaud’s plan, served for 17 years in Congress and now heads up a Washington, D.C., advocacy organization, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. She pointed to poor stock performances from 1999 to 2002, where investors nearing retirement saw their 401(k) accounts drop by 25 percent, as a vivid picture of what would happen under privatization.

Michaud said that benefits in the privatized system would be determined by fluctuations in the market and an investor’s ability to invest in the right stocks at the right time, rather than the worker’s pay or contribution level.

The nation hasn’t added a constitutional amendment since 1992, when a ban on midterm congressional pay raises was instituted. And even that had a long history, with it first being proposed by James Madison in 1789.

Michaud acknowledged his effort faces opposition, but maintained that a constitutional amendment can be made, as evidenced by Mainers a few years ago adopting a state constitutional amendment that protected the state pension fund from the prying hands of the Legislature and the executive branch.

In addition to Kennelly’s support, Michaud also has the support of the Maine Council of Senior Citizens. John Carr, president of the organization, said that as many as two-thirds of senior citizens rely on Social Security for at least half of their income, and that there are many Maine citizens who rely solely on Social Security for their income.

All the details haven’t been released about the proposed privatization, and Kennelly said the Bush administration is deliberating about whether to release the details before or after the 2004 election. At the least, Bush is expected to touch on the privatization in his State of the Union speech next Tuesday. So time was of the essence to keep the anti-privatization effort on the front burner, she said.

“Voices that believe in Social Security have to be heard in 2004 before the next presidential election,” she said. “It cannot wait until after the election.”