While John McCain is in Iraq making plans for 100 years of occupation, nobody should forget his opinion on domestic issues.

In an interview appearing in the March 3 edition of The Wall Street Journal, McCain restated his support for the privatization of Social Security, saying, “As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it - along the lines that President Bush proposed.”

The proposal McCain favors is the same Bush privatization plan rejected by the American people in 2005 for jeopardizing the economic security of current and future retirees and ravaging guaranteed benefits for seniors and the disabled.

Without the program, half of all American seniors would live in poverty. Privatization would mean a 30-50-percent cut in benefits, with the average retiree losing $134,000 in payments over 20 years of retirement.

Sen. McCain has consistently favored privatization, and voted for it in 2006.

“Don't be fooled, John McCain is, was and always will be a privatizer,” said George J. Kourpias, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans. “While he fancies himself a maverick, he has long championed the Bush plan to gamble away Social Security on the roulette wheel of the stock market. In a Bush-McCain world, seniors' risk would be Wall Street's reward.”

Lucie de Jounge

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Santa Maria

March 26, 2008