Walter Mondale on Social Security
Privatizing Social Security is "a dreadful idea"
Privatizing Social Security is "a dreadful idea, as the recent stock market trends have demonstrated," Mondale said. He ruled out any increases in the Social Security retirement age beyond those already scheduled.
He endorsed no tax increases or benefit cuts that might forestall the system's insolvency, now projected for 2041, but said getting the deficit under control was vital for maintaining benefits when baby boomers retire.
Source: Eric Black, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
Nov 1, 2002
Chaired commission on privatization, but opposed privatizing
Newt Gingrich accused Mondale of supporting Social Security privatization and raising the retirement eligibility age, but it appears the allegations are false. "Mondale chaired a commission that was for the privatization of Social Security worldwide,"
Gingrich said.The commission, sponsored by the bipartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies, recommended raising retirement ages and converting "social protection schemes from pay-as-you-go to market based financing" in major
industrialized countries as a way to deal with the crisis of aging population. But Mondale dissented from the majority position that supported raising retirement ages and privatizing government retirement programs.
Mondale wrote: "We do not support the
Commission's recommendations that might result in the dismantling of social insurance programs and their replacement with funded schemes. Funded systems should remain an important supplement to existing guarantees, but they should not replace them."
Source: Terry M. Neal, Washington Post
Oct 28, 2002