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Republican Pension Reform Bill is Abusive and Irresponsible
House of Representatives - December 15, 2005

Madam Speaker, this bill proves that the Republicans are not just after poor people. This pension bill boils down to one fundamental principle: The Republicans want all Americans, including flight attendants and everybody else out there on a pension, to be entirely alone, isolated from the strength and compassion of American values.

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Madam Speaker, this bill proves that the Republicans are not just after poor people. This pension bill boils down to one fundamental principle: The Republicans want all Americans, including flight attendants and everybody else out there on a pension, to be entirely alone, isolated from the strength and compassion of American values.

I am here to say that this pension bill that forces elderly Americans into solitary confinement is abusive, irresponsible and morally bankrupt. This whole year has been about doing it to people. Get rid of Social Security, privatize it, put them on their own. Medicare: Privatize it, put them on their own. Now we have the pension bill: Privatize it, put them on their own.

Take away the union benefit, how will they do it? They are going to Boeing. They squeeze Boeing tight, and Boeing flips into 401(k), and there goes the pension down the drain.

Now this raises the question, what is wrong with you people? We decided a long time ago in this country that there was strength in numbers. We had to do things together. That is why Social Security was developed. That is why Medicare was developed.

The Republican vision articulated in this bill is that America is a sinking ship, and the shout is for every man and woman, you are on your own.

They call it an ownership society. You will still have a pension; it will be a 401(k). But it really is, you are on your own. If you can figure out the market, good luck, baby.

There are not enough lifeboats in the water, and we know that, and everybody is jumping off the ship. In 1980, 40 percent of employers provided a pension. Today, only 20 percent do. Now, that is a 50 percent reduction in 20 years, and the pensions that are provided, fewer provide a guaranteed benefit than they used to get.

So what do we have left? The stark fact is that half of America's retirees have less than $15,000 income. Imagine living in the United States on $15,000 after working for 45 years. Only 50 percent of American households have retirement savings at all, but if they do not have a benefit from the pension and their Social Security, which has not been ripped away from them, they got nothing.

Now, half of the households who have savings have an average $385 a month. So they get their Social Security, $1,800 a month at the maximum, and $385, oh, they are living fat on $2,000 a month.

The people without any savings are disproportionately poor, have nothing except Social Security, and the Republicans, as I say, tried to take that away earlier in the year. We beat them on that, and we should beat them on this.

This is the definition of financial freedom that Republicans want for Americans: They want riskier pensions and no way for anybody to be sure of anything. I urge my colleagues to vote no on this.