Jon S. Corzine: “this morning I rise to speak on perhaps the most important long-term domestic issue facing our Nation--the future health…”

“this morning I rise to speak on perhaps the most important long-term domestic issue facing our Nation--the future health and security of our Social Security system. Today, I want to focus on proposals to privatize Social Security and the special threat privatization poses to women in America. Last December, late on a Friday afternoon, before Christmas, President Bush's Social Security Commission released its recommendations for changes in the Social Security system. The Commission's report did not get much media coverage because of the timing of its release, and I think that was obviously by design, if you read the report. The recommendations of the Bush Commission are dramatic and damaging, if implemented, for the future of all Social Security beneficiaries but particularly for women. They involve deep cuts in guaranteed Social Security benefits--cuts of 25 percent or so for those currently working and up to 45 percent for future workers. Undoubtedly, these proposals would force millions of Americans to delay their retirement so that they would have the ability to live their senior years with economic security.”