Statement by Roger Hickey, Co-Director, Campaign for America’s Future

In summary, if this election was a referendum on Social Security privatization, privatization lost.

The President himself never even mentioned Social Security in his stump speech as he barnstormed the nation in the closing days of the campaign. He did not ask for votes for his Social Security agenda and he did not get them.
If Republicans want to move legislation to create private accounts out of Social Security, they will have to come up with a plan that achieves their campaign promises not to cut Social Security benefits – a goal the Bush commission was unable to achieve.

The voters heard most of these Republicans swear to oppose privatization – and to fight vigorously against cuts in retirement benefits or injecting more risk into Social Security. In our report we assemble a large number of quotations to this effect – from candidate speeches and TV spots aimed at the voters. But even more persuasive is what Stan Greenberg’s polling reveals. When he asked voters to rank the most important reasons why they voted Republican, the top answer (offered by 35 percent of those voters) was support for Bush and the war on terrorism. But very high up on the list of reasons to vote for Republicans (at 24 percent of GOP voters) was “To protect Social Security” – just below “To Cut Taxes” (at 27 percent).

And what percentage cited “To get individual investment accounts in Social Security” as one of their key reasons to vote Republican? A grand total of 8 percent! Clearly, most voters did think not they were giving Republican’s a mandate – because they never heard a Republican argument for private accounts.