A slew of Republican Senate candidates have recently tried to dress up their support for Social Security privatization as something else entirely, denying that they support privatization while continuing to advocate for the creation of private Social Security accounts that could be invested in the markets.
Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey,
Ohio Republican Rob Portman,
Arkansas Republican John Boozman, and
Colorado Republican Ken Buck have all said they oppose privatization, while simultaneously advocating for private accounts. Oregon’s Republican Senate nominee, law professor Jim Huffman,
became the latest to join this club during a debate last night with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), asserting that he hasn’t argued for privatizing Social Security,
literally one sentence after calling for the creation of private accounts:
I have argued for allowing newcomers to the Social Security system to have the option of private accounts. I have not argued for privatizing the Social Security system. There’s nothing in the record that would uphold that argument.
This is all part and parcel of the concerted conservative campaign to change the terms — but not the policy prescriptions — of Social Security privatization. Privatization polls badly, so conservatives want to change the word, but not the idea. As the Wonk Room explained, the fact remains that creating private Social Security accounts would impose new risks on seniors, force new administrative costs and benefit reductions, and wouldn’t even set Social Security on a path to solvency
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