Inside Paul Ryan’s Plan To Privatize Social Security
One of Rep. Paul Ryan’s many past proposals to remake the federal safety net included a sweeping plan to privatize Social Security and risk the program’s solvency in attempting to save it. He championed the idea as recently as 2010 but pushed it under the rug the following year. Mitt Romney, who recently selected Ryan to be his vice presidential nominee, is steering clear of the plan.
The proposal was in Ryan’s 2010 “Roadmap For America’s Future,” a broad blueprint to remake the federal budget which elevated the little-known congressman into the Republican Party’s visionary. It involved shifting Social Security funds to private retirement accounts as well as reducing benefits and gradually raising the age of eligibility.
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“Rep. Ryan described his plan as strengthening Social Security,” said Paul Van de Water, a Social Security expert at CBPP. “In fact, however, it would have made deep cuts in guaranteed Social Security benefits and impaired the program’s solvency by diverting a large portion of payroll taxes into private accounts that would primarily benefit high earners.”
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Ryan’s bill was so far-reaching the Bush administration called it “irresponsible” before pushing a scaled-back version — which failed. The Romney campaign isn’t endorsing it and it’s unclear if he’d push such a plan if elected president. But the proposal offers an important glimpse into the governing philosophy of Ryan — and by extension Romney.
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