Tim Ryan: “I had a Social Security town hall meeting last night at Warren G. Harding High School in Warren, Ohio; and we were…”

“I had a Social Security town hall meeting last night at Warren G. Harding High School in Warren, Ohio; and we were having a discussion about these kinds of issues. And one of the gentlemen, as we were talking about him as a small business owner, self-employed, he had to pay his own Social Security tax. He had to pay the whole amount, the employer's share and the employee's share for himself. And he was struggling because he had health care issues that he had to deal with. The health care costs were going through the roof. He had two kids in college. And tuition costs in Ohio have doubled over the past few years. And when we get back after the break we are going to get into a little more about the cost of college tuition. But the point is, the Social Security privatization scheme sounds like a good idea to some employers, because the way that the blueprint has it set up is that the employee will be able to take 4 percent and divert it to an account, and the employer will not have to match that 4 percent; and so it is basically a tax break for the business person, which may be okay for small business folks and help them a great deal. But what we are saying as Democrats is, why are we not dealing with the real issue, the health care costs that are going through the roof?…”