ANSONIA – Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (Conn.-3) today hosted her first area discussion on Social Security at a town hall forum at Ansonia High School. Flanked by experts in the field, DeLauro described to Valley residents how proposed changes will impact current and future retirees – beneficiaries and their children, parents and other loved ones. Policy experts John Erlinghouser of the Connecticut AARP, David Datelle, an economist and public policy analyst and Michele Noehren of Connecticut Citizens Action joined DeLauro at the forum.

“Social Security is an immensely successful and efficient middle-class retirement program,” DeLauro told the crowd. “The program faces challenges, but is not in a crisis, as the administration has suggested. Social Security connects one generation to the next, which is why any changes Congress makes to Social Security today should strengthen it for future generations.”

President Bush has suggested privatizing Social Security by diverting a third of payroll taxes into private accounts that can be invested in the stock market – the proposal does not address the expected funding shortfall in the current Social Security system. “By taking money out of the trust fund to invest it in the stock market, the proposal makes the problem worse,” DeLauro said. “Under the president’s proposal, we will still have to pay benefits to current retirees at the same time we are taking money out of the system to invest in the stock market, causing the deficit to explode by another $2 trillion in the first decade alone.”

One plan suggested by the President's Commission on Social Security would cut future benefits by 45 percent for children born today, even after possible gains from private accounts were taken into consideration, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Additionally, the average private account would be taxed at 70 percent through monthly deductions from Social Security checks. This privatization tax would come on top of the benefit cuts that will affect all Social Security beneficiaries.

“Congress should address this challenge by looking at not only what we should do today – but what we have done in the past,” said DeLauro. “In 1983, when bankruptcy was only a year off – not 47 as it is today – Congress and President Reagan worked together on a bipartisan commission headed by Alan Greenspan that ensured Social Security would be solvent for generations. And they did it not by changing the fundamental nature of the program but by making minor adjustments to the benefits and financing structures. That is what we should do today.”

Two-thirds of seniors rely on Social Security for a majority of their income. A cut of more than one third from promised benefits would result in $426 less per month for an average Connecticut beneficiary. This is a total benefit of only $6,000 per year, which is $2,300 less than the poverty level. Nearly 120,000 residents of the Third District rely on Social Security.

Social Security is particularly important to women, who comprise nearly 60 percent of all seniors on Social Security – a majority of whom would be living in poverty without it. More than half of all women receiving benefits do so as the spouse of a retired worker, but for four in ten women on their own, the program accounts for 90 percent of their retirement income

“Privatization and a reduction in promised benefits would have serious adverse effects on the economic health of women,” said DeLauro. “This proposal will be especially devastating to women who traditionally earn fewer Social Security benefits than men, yet comprise a greater percentage of the system.”

Data released by the National Women’s Law Center showed widows in Connecticut would see enormous cuts under the Bush proposal. The typical recipient receives $942 per month ($11,304 per year). Under Plan 2 of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security, which calls for a cut in benefits, the typical Connecticut widow would receive only $518 per month ($6,216 per year), an amount equal to only 72 percent of the poverty line

DeLauro will host a second town hall in March, date and location to be announced.