National Committee advertisement criticizes Social Security privatization: local coalition uses blatant fabrication to take swipe at Committee

Washington, D.C. -- A January 20 USA Today newspaper advertisement from the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare has drawn new support to block proposals to take money from the Social Security Trust Fund and to spend it in risky private accounts. In the three days since the ad appeared, hundreds of calls have been coming in to Committee headquarters from individuals who want to be involved in the privatization debate.

The ad publicized the results of a recent poll in which National Committee members were asked if they favored diverting some Social Security payroll taxes into privately invested individual accounts. Of those surveyed, 99.5% responded "No".

The ad also drew a response from Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). The group issued a press release falsely characterizing the National Committee as a "front group for Big Labor". The Committee, established in 1982, is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization unaffiliated with any other organization, including all labor unions. Support for the advocacy and education work of the Committee is derived entirely from over 3 million members and supporters and their personal contributions.

In a strongly worded letter to ATR, former Congresswoman and National Committee president and CEO Barbara B. Kennelly wrote, "I respect your right to disagree with our views on the issue of Social Security privatization. But unless you are in the business of spreading deliberate falsehoods, I demand your immediate retraction and correction of the inaccuracies contained in your release."

The ATR release incorrectly cited the survey results as 95.5 % and accused the Committee of falsely claiming "widespread" opposition to privatization.

"The ad was huge and the print quite large", Mrs. Kennelly said. "It clearly states that we asked [our] members, who also happen to be American seniors and voters. Ninety-nine ½ percent of them oppose Social Security privatization. In the future, ATR would do well to invest some of its time to fact-checking before issuing defamatory statements," she stated.

The National Committee continues to oppose reform proposals that would take money out of Social Security and put it into private accounts. The Committee believes that workers should be encouraged to invest for their retirement in addition to Social Security, not with money carved out of Social Security. This only weakens the program financially and requires more dramatic changes in benefits and/or revenues to restore the program's long-term solvency.