Bill Richardson on Social Security Democratic Governor (NM); Secretary of Commerce-Designee

Don’t raise the cap; it’s a 15% tax on middle class

A: No, you don’t need to do that. That’s a 15% tax on small businesses, on the middle class, on family farms. You don’t need to do that. This is what you do. One, you take privatization off the table. You don’t want Social Security in the stock market. Two, you stop raiding the Social Security Trust Fund, as the Congress and the president constantly do.

Stop talking about privatization; stop raiding trust fund

A: The best solution to those two issues is a bipartisan effort to fix it. 33% of Medicare cost is diabetes. Let’s have major prevention programs, and also ways that we can ensure that we find a cure. And stop raiding the Social Security trust fund. Stop talking about privatization. And then thirdly, let’s look at a universal pension, 401(k) universal pension, that would assure portability for those that want to keep their pensions as they move into other professions. But what we need is a bipartisan effort. Put this issue aside. If I’m president, I would take this issue and I would say, Republicans, Democrats, within a year, let’s find a solution. No politics. This is the safety net of this country.

Focus budget reform like Soc. Sec., avoiding future burden

We need to address this profligacy in a bipartisan manner. There is no shortage of strategies--hard spending caps in Congress; an end to certain tax cuts enacted when the fiscal outlook was brighter; a larger overhaul of the federal tax code to build simplicity and equity into the system. I would advocate some combination of these three approaches. But I doubt that Washington can get from here to there without some political cover. This was the job done by Alan Greenspan’s Social Security Reform Commission in 1983. I’d set up a commission on taxes and spending. We simply cannot continue to avert our eyes from this gathering crisis.