Social Security is a great American success story – affordable, progressive, fiscally responsible and reliable.  It is the cornerstone of American retirement security and the nation’s single most important family income protection program.

The American people understand the importance of Social Security.  They roundly rejected President Bush’s attempt to privatize the program.

This month John McCain made clear he doesn’t understand how the Social Security works, and over the course of his career he has demonstrated that he would seize any opportunity to weaken the program and jeopardize its benefits.

John McCain said, and this is the direct quote, “Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today.  And that’s a disgrace.  It’s an absolute disgrace, and it’s got to be fixed.”  Close quote.

Social Security, since its creation over seventy years ago, has been a pay-as-you-go system.  That’s not new.  It’s not broken and it is not a disgrace. 

Senator McCain has voted repeatedly to replace Social Security’s guaranteed benefits with risky investments.  To this day, he supports raising the retirement age, reducing cost-of-living adjustments and diverting a portion of Social Security payroll taxes to fund private accounts.  In other words:  John McCain supports Social Security privatization.

After years of relentless attacks on the value and solvency of the program, Americans need a president who will restore the country’s confidence in the Social Security system, who will challenge the proponents of privatization schemes that threaten guaranteed benefits and who will work with Congress to bring the system into long-range balance. 

Anything less is a true disgrace.

Leading up to the 2008 election, the AFL-CIO will make sure that every working American and every union member knows John McCain’s record on social security and what is at stake in this election.

Seniors vote in disproportionate numbers and deserve to know the truth about John McCain’s plan to gamble away their future.

Contact:  Steve Smith 202-637-5018.