Mike Levin: “Opposing private retirement accounts is not nitpicking. It is a major issue. And among Democrats and some Republicans…”

“Opposing private retirement accounts is not nitpicking. It is a major issue. And among Democrats and some Republicans there is deep resistance to it. In terms of specific proposals, I would suggest, as was true in the early 1980s, if we are going to have a commission, let it be diverse, let it have a broad range of opinions. Do not have anybody, whether it is the President or the Congress, picking people who agree with them; in the President's case, people who believe in private retirement accounts, which is, I think, a legitimate privatization method in terms of what we call it. I do not think it is legitimate, but we can legitimately call it privatization. Mr. Speaker, I believe the issues really are clear. I think the discussion here has been even more to the point than I expected in terms of what this resolution is all about and what is behind it.”