THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE TO PRESERVE SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE
~ 4.6 Million Seniors ~ One Voice ~ No Privatization ~

November 29, 2006

NEWS RELEASE

“It’s outrageous that at the same time the President promises bi-partisanship, he nominates to the number two position in the Social Security Administration a privatization partisan who’s suggested sending Social Security ’ to the slaughterhouse’.”…Barbara B. Kennelly, President/CEO

The President’s Actions Speak Louder than Words
Social Security Administration Nominee Andrew Biggs
Not Right for the Post

48 million Americans depend on Social Security each year. It is the nation’s most successful and trusted government program. But President Bush’s nominee to become the Deputy Commissioner of Social Security, Andrew Biggs, wants Social Security dismantled.

In 1999, Biggs authored a Congressional Institute white paper proposing private accounts as a way to shift seniors away from government retirement programs in favor of private markets. Biggs wrote, “In that way, Social Security reform featuring Personal Retirement Accounts doesn’t send just one liberal sacred cow to the slaughterhouse. It sends the whole herd.” Biggs has also been investigated for allegedly violating a federal ban on congressional lobbying by federal employees while serving as an Associate Commissioner at the SSA.

“Andrew Biggs has built a career on creating strategies which would destroy Social Security and promoting the President’s private accounts plans to achieve that goal. We believe Mr. Biggs is a partisan and political nominee presented at a time when we need just the opposite”…Barbara B. Kennelly

The National Committee, representing its 4.6 million members and supporters, has written Senators Max Baucus and Harry Reid urging the rejection of Mr. Biggs’ nomination to become the Deputy Commissioner of Social Security. The National Committee letter can be found on our website at http://www.ncpssm.org/pdf/fin_grassley.pdf.