Countdown to the 2000 elections: Will it be Gore or Bush? Clinton or Lazio
Al
Gore:Social Security, retirement —
Gore opposes “any plan that would siphon taxpayer funds away from Social Security and risk its guaranteed benefit.”
Gore’s 10-year federal-budget plan aims to end the national debt by 2013, while securing Social Security through 2050.
Gore also proposes to establish “Retirement Savings Plus” — tax-free, personal-savings accounts with a government match to help people build individual nest eggs of up to $200,000.
“I am proposing a plan to give families the real help they need to build better lives for themselves and their children," Gore said. "My plan .... doesn't come at the expense of Social Security. It comes in addition to Social Security.”
These voluntary accounts would be separate from Social Security, and would provide retirement resources in addition to Social Security's guaranteed benefit.
These privately managed accounts would resemble 401(k) accounts, but with the match coming from the government, rather than the employer.
The federal government would match individual contributions with tax credits, with the hardest-pressed working families getting the largest tax credits. For a married couple making up to $30,000 annually, each spouse could contribute $500 annually to his or her own account.
The refundable tax credit would add another $1,500, providing a total account of $2,000 per person. Couples making between $30,000 and $60,000 would receive a $1,000 matching tax credit per person, and couples earning up to $100,000 would receive a $500 matching tax credit per person.
A young married couple that invested together the full $4,000 for 35 years in a balanced portfolio of equities and bonds, with a conservative 5.3 percent annual rate of return would build a nest egg of more than $400,000 for retirement.
Personal savings as well as government matching funds could be directly deposited into an individual’s account.
Medicare —
Gore’s 10-year federal-budget plan also would make Medicare solvent and viable for future generations. And it would add a Medicare prescription-drug benefit.
Gore wants to put Medicare in a kind of legal “lock box” to ensure that its surpluses could be used only to pay down the national debt and to strengthen Medicare, and not for other government spending or tax cuts.
George
Bush:Social Security, retirement —
Bush promises to lead a bipartisan effort to save and modernize Social Security based on these principles:
• No change to existing benefits for retirees or near-retirees.
• Lock away the Social Security surplus to pay for Social Security only.
• No increase in Social Security payroll taxes.
• No government investment of Social Security funds in the stock market.
• Preserve disability and survivors benefits.
• Add individually controlled, voluntary, personal-retirement accounts to augment the Social Security safety net.
These accounts should earn higher rates of return, have parameters of safety and soundness, and help workers build wealth that can be passed on to their children.
Medicare —
Bush also has established principles for saving and strengthening Medicare.
“Our nation must reform Medicare,” Bush says. “Seniors deserve a wider scope of coverage, and they deserve to have more choices among health plans.”
Governor Bush’s Medicare reform principles include:
• Preserve Medicare’s current guaranteed access to seniors.
• Give every Medicare recipient a choice of health plans, including the option of purchasing a plan that covers prescription drugs.
• Make sure Medicare covers expenses for low-income seniors.
• Streamline access to the latest medical technologies.
• No increase in Medicare payroll taxes.
• Establish an accurate measure of the solvency of Medicare.
Bush promises to work for a bipartisan solution to expand Medicare benefits and choices for seniors.
“There is a new attitude in Washington that shows that reforming Social Security can and must be bipartisan,” Bush says. “We can already see the emerging outlines of a consensus.”
Bush pledges to build on that momentum.
Hillary Clinton (Democrat)Born: October 26, 1947
Home: Chappaqua, NY
Education: Wellesley College (BA 1969), Yale Law School (JD 1973)
Career: Attorney in Arkansas (1984-87), Arkansas First Lady (1988-91), US First Lady (1992-present)
LABOR endorsements: PEF — US Senate, (2000), SEIU Local 1199 — US Senate, (2000), LIUNA — US Senate, (2000)
NEA/NY — US Senate, (2000)
Social Security, retirement planning
—
Clinton supports using the federal budget surplus to
eliminate the national debt by 2013 and using the money,
that would otherwise have gone for interest payments on
that debt, to bolster Social Security and Medicare.
Interest on the national debt now costs nearly 14 cents
out of every federal budget dollar.
Clinton says her plan would extend the life of Social
Security to at least 2050.
“The Social Security program is our nation's solemn
pledge that Americans can and will grow older with
dignity. It is not just a retirement program; almost
one-third of the beneficiaries of the Social Security
system are severely disabled workers, children, survivors
of workers who've died in an untimely manner,”
Clinton says.
“Every other woman you see who is over 65 would be
living below the poverty line if it were not for Social
Security. For a quarter of our older women, Social
Security is the only income they receive,” Clinton
states.
Clinton says that paying off the debt will create room in
the budget for the increased Social Security and Medicare
costs of the baby boomers. “It will also free up
funds for investment, help keep interest rates low, and
boost workers' productivity and incomes,” she says.
Medicare —
Clinton would use part of the federal surplus to maintain
Medicare Trust Fund until at least 2025 and to add a
prescription-drug benefit.
Nearly half of the non-Social Security surplus would be
used over the next decade for debt reduction and to
extend the life of Medicare by shoring up the Hospital
Insurance fund.
“There are 2.7 million Medicare beneficiaries in New
York today,” Clinton says.“By the year 2025
— a year that Medicare would be insolvent if we
don’t act — there will be 3.3 million New York
seniors on Medicare, a 38 percent increase.”
Clinton cites the fact that approximately 2 million
seniors have no significant prescription drug benefits as
proof of the need for Medicare to begin covering
prescription drugs.
Rick Lazio (Republican)Born: March 13, 1958
Home: Brightwaters, NY
Education: Vassar College (BA 1980), American University (JD 1983)
Career: Suffolk County Assistant DA (1984-88), Suffolk County Legislature (1988-92), Congress, NY 2nd District (1992-present)
LABOR endorsements: PEF — Congress, (1994, ’96, ’98)
Social
Security, retirement planning —
Lazio voted for H.C.R. 68 last year — an FY 2000
budget resolution opposed by the AFL-CIO because it used
$800 billion to finance a tax cut aimed predominantly at
the wealthy. The AFL-CIO supported legislation that would
have used those funds to extend Social Security and
Medicare.
The AFL-CIO reports that on key issues, Lazio has voted
with the interests of working people 34 percent of the
time.
However, Lazio cosponsored and voted for the Senior
Citizen Right to Work Act, which was signed into law by
President Clinton on On March 29, 1996.
This federal law gradually increases over seven years the
amount of outside income that Social Security
beneficiaries can earn without being penalized.
Previously, the maximum that seniors between the ages of
65 and 69 could earn and still receive their full Social
Security benefits was $11,520. Under this law that
maximum is now $17,000. It will rise to $25,000 in 2001
and $30,000 in 2002.
“The Senior Citizens Right to Work Act is paid for
by ending the indefensible federal practice of issuing
Social Security checks to alcohol and drug addicts,”
Lazio says.
Lazio was part of a bipartisan group of House members who
crafted and sponsored the “Small Business Tax
Fairness Act” which passed the House in March.
In addition to its main purpose of providing a tax break
for small businesses to offset the cost of a higher
minimum wage, Lazio says the bill would encourage small
businesses to provide pension plans to their employees.
Other benefits of this legislation would be increased tax
credits for construction of low-income housing, and the
opportunity for self-employed taxpayers to deduct the
cost of their health insurance.
Medicare —
Lazio is a member of the House Medicare Prescription Drug
Task Force charged with drafting a new program to provide
Medicare-eligible seniors and disabled people with access
to prescription drugs.
On April 13, the task force unveiled a plan to provide
prescription drug coverage, which Lazio says will be
available to all, affordable and uses private-sector
negotiating abilities to bring down the price of drugs.