December 24, 2004: Headlines: COS - Iran: Social Security: Cleveland: Shalala tells Clevelanders she's wary of privatizing Social Security benefits
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December 24, 2004: Headlines: COS - Iran: Social Security: Cleveland: Shalala tells Clevelanders she's wary of privatizing Social Security benefits
Shalala tells Clevelanders she's wary of privatizing Social Security benefits
Shalala tells Clevelanders she's wary of privatizing Social Security benefits
Shalala tells Clevelanders she's wary of privatizing Social Security benefits
Friday, December 24, 2004
Ebony Reed
Plain Dealer Reporter
A native Clevelander who was in President Clinton's Cabinet told a local audience Thursday that Americans should save more money, as she also warned against total privatization of Social Security.
Donna Shalala, a 1958 West Tech graduate and former secretary of Health and Human Services, spoke in her former high school, which is now West Tech Lofts, an apartment complex.
About 20 people -- many of them relatives -- attended Shalala's discussion, a kickoff to the Lofts' upcoming lectures on tax and estate planning.
Shalala has been president of the University of Miami for almost four years.
During her tenure with the Clinton administration, she increased immunization programs for children, and Clinton signed a bill revamping welfare. That law ended nearly 60 years of federal subsidies to poor Americans and put states in charge of helping the poor, with a stronger emphasis on work programs.
Shalala said the concept of privatizing Social Security is not a bad one, but current proposals don't work for most people.
"The windfall is for Wall Street," she said.
Kent Smith, a Euclid school board member who attended Thursday, agreed.
Smith said he is concerned that the push for privatization may be really about beefing up financial markets, not increasing money for retirees.
Allowing Americans to put money for retirement in private savings accounts is good as long as it does not reduce the guaranteed payments under the current Social Security system, Shalala said.
But she was quick to add that investment accounts have other problems.
"Everything would depend on timing," she said. "Most Americans don't have that much control to wait until the market goes up to retire."
President Bush and others supporting some privatization of Social Security say it would keep the program afloat longer. Bush has said that baby boomers will strain Social Security when they retire.
Despite that hit from baby boomers, the program will have enough money to make payments through 2042, Shalala said.
Knowing that made Jennifer Kravec, a baby boomer who lives in the West Tech Lofts, feel better.
"I thought I'd be in the group that wouldn't be getting Social Security," she said. "Now I think that will just be used as a scare tactic."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
ereed@plaind.com, 216-999-4848
© 2004 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.
When this story was posted in December 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| The World's Broken Promise to our Children Former Director Carol Bellamy, now head of Unicef, says that the appalling conditions endured today by half the world's children speak to a broken promise. Too many governments are doing worse than neglecting children -- they are making deliberate, informed choices that hurt children. Read her op-ed and Unicef's report on the State of the World's Children 2005. |
| Our debt to Bill Moyers Former Peace Corps Deputy Director Bill Moyers leaves PBS next week to begin writing his memoir of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Read what Moyers says about journalism under fire, the value of a free press, and the yearning for democracy. "We have got to nurture the spirit of independent journalism in this country," he warns, "or we'll not save capitalism from its own excesses, and we'll not save democracy from its own inertia." |
| Is Gaddi Leaving? Rumors are swirling that Peace Corps Director Vasquez may be leaving the administration. We think Director Vasquez has been doing a good job and if he decides to stay to the end of the administration, he could possibly have the same sort of impact as a Loret Ruppe Miller. If Vasquez has decided to leave, then Bob Taft, Peter McPherson, Chris Shays, or Jody Olsen would be good candidates to run the agency. Latest: For the record, Peace Corps has no comment on the rumors. |
| The Birth of the Peace Corps UMBC's Shriver Center and the Maryland Returned Volunteers hosted Scott Stossel, biographer of Sargent Shriver, who spoke on the Birth of the Peace Corps. This is the second annual Peace Corps History series - last year's speaker was Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn. |
| Charges possible in 1976 PCV slaying Congressman Norm Dicks has asked the U.S. attorney in Seattle to consider pursuing charges against Dennis Priven, the man accused of killing Peace Corps Volunteer Deborah Gardner on the South Pacific island of Tonga 28 years ago. Background on this story here and here. |
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