Little Rock – Bill Halter is right about one thing, U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln’s campaign said today. A lot has changed since 1999.
In a press release today, Bill points to Senator Lincoln’s 1999 testimony introducing him to her colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee.
“Bill’s right, a lot has happened since 1999,” Lincoln campaign manager Steve Patterson said. “Since that time he led corporations that lied about the effectiveness of their prescription drugs and that outsourced jobs to India. Now he’s running a political campaign that deliberately misrepresents Senator Lincoln’s voting record and attempts to duck accountability for his own record.”
Read more about how Bill profited from outsourcing jobs to India and his involvement in shady drug deals and settled lawsuits here and here.
“Bill said he protected Social Security from Republican privatization schemes,” Patterson said. “He can’t take credit in his role as a Washington bureaucrat, while at the same time denying culpability of his involvement with corporations that outsourced jobs and hid facts from the public about the effectiveness of their prescription drugs.”
Read more about Senator Lincoln’s record taking action in the United States Senate against privatization efforts, as compared to the rallies Bill attended here.
“While every Senate candidate will be in Jonesboro Thursday night for a candidate forum, Bill is hosting a fund raiser, ducking another opportunity to answer questions and face voters,” Patterson said. “He continues to avoid transparency about what he promised unions for their support and he’s ducking out on opportunities to make his views known.”
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Bill Halter’s Record “Protecting” Social Security.
- Halter Spokesman Couldn’t Provide Details on Halter’s Supposed Fight Against Privatization. “Campaign spokesman Bud Jackson said that Halter, an administrator at Social Security from 1999-2001, traveled throughout the country opposing privatization but didn’t have details.” [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 3/7/2010]
- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Found Only Four Instances Of Halter Holding Events to Fight Privatization. “A search of news articles reveals: In April 2005, in Iowa City, Iowa, Halter warned against Bush’s plan. In October 2002, he appeared at a news conference with Arkansas Attorney General Mark Pryor, Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate at the time, to oppose privatization. (Pryor won that Senate race and is supporting Lincoln.) The same month, Halter appeared at a similar news conference with a Democratic Senate candidate in North Carolina. In October 2000, in an interview with the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, Halter warned of the potential of senior citizens losing their retirement savings through investment losses and the government having to bail them out.” [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 3/7/2010]
While Bill Halter attended rallies, Senator Lincoln took action in the United States Senate against privatizing Social Security.
- 2007: Lincoln Voted Against “First Step Toward Social Security Privatization.” In 2007, Lincoln voted against an amendment “to stop the practice of Social Security surpluses being spent as part of the federal budget’s general funds. Although the amendment to S Con Res 21 did not specify how the surpluses would be invested, critics called it the first step toward social security privatization.” [Houston Chronicle, 3/25/2007; Senate Vote #89, 3/22/2007]
- 2006: Lincoln Voted Against Raiding Social Security To Create Risky Private Accounts. In 2006, Lincoln voted against a proposal to shift Social Security’s annual surpluses into a reserve account intended to be turned into risky private accounts. The amendment would have created the fund “only after the Senate produced legislation allowing younger workers to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal investment accounts.” [Senate Vote #68, 3/16/2006; Roll Call, 3/20/2006]
- As President Bush Prepared to Take His Privatization Plan to the People of Arkansas, Lincoln Stood in Opposition. Lincoln said of President Bush’s plan to divert tax money into personal accounts, “I’m opposed to what the president presumably wants to do. It puts in jeopardy a program that is vital to the people of Arkansas and is misleading to the young people about what they’re going to end up with.” [New York Times, 2/1/2005]
- Lincoln Argued That Working Arkansans Would Disproportionately Bear the Risk of Privatizing Social Security. During a Democratic Policy Committee Hearing on President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security, Sen. Lincoln noted, “50 percent of Arkansans have an adjusted gross income of less than $25,000, and 80 percent of them have an adjusted gross income of less than $50,000…They don’t have the time nor the resources to spend towards investigating and figuring out and becoming economists to invest those dollars…They’re the ones that are going to be subjected to more risk, and they’re the ones that need it the least, in terms of risk.” [Hearing of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, 5/13/2005]
- Lincoln Clearly Outlined Her Opposition to Social Security Privatization. In a statement, Sen. Lincoln said, “We should not cut funding designated to Social Security by diverting trillions of dollars away from the trust fund.” In addition, “Lincoln said there was no chance of her changing her mind.” [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 4/27/2005]
- Lincoln Questioned the Impact of Social Security Privatization on Rural Americans. During a Senate Finance Committee Hearing in 2005, Sen. Lincoln noted, “we know that workers living in rural areas such as my state are more likely to be poor, and they are less likely to be able to contribute to personal savings accounts…I guess my question would be, how will private accounts impact rural Americans? I mean, Americans who are most likely not to have enough savings to make up for any reductions in their Social Security benefit, and those who are least likely to be capable of paying the debt off that much of is going to be created from these accounts, private accounts that the president’s proposing?” [Senate Finance Committee Hearing, 4/26/2005]
- Lincoln Spoke to Arkansans About Her Opposition to Bush’s Social Security Plan. In 2005, as Bush toured the country touting his Social Security privatization plan, Senator Lincoln “used a public forum hosted by the University of Arkansas’ business school…to criticize President Bush’s plan to restructure Social Security.” She said, “I don’t believe that privatizing Social Security is the answer…If you take a portion of these payroll taxes that are being paid into the Social Security system and put that into the private marketplace, you’re taking money from your grandmother’s Social Security benefit.” [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 3/30/2005]
- Lincoln Praised Arkansas Legislators for Standing Against Privatization of Social Security. In 2005, Sen. Lincoln commended the Arkansas State House of Representatives “for sending a clear message of opposition to the President’s efforts to privatize Social Security.” In a statement, she said, I thank them for sending the clear message to the people they represent that they will not support any efforts to dismantle or privatize our nation’s Social Security system, Senator Lincoln said. I’m proud of this effort by our state House, and I stand with them in opposing any diversion of payroll taxes designated for the Social Security system to create private accounts.” [Lincoln Press Release, 3/3/2005]
- On Anniversary of Social Security, Lincoln Toured Cities in Arkansas to Promote Opposition to Privatization. On the 70th anniversary of Social Security in 2005, Sen. Lincoln visited four cities in Arkansas where “she criticized President Bush’s plan to partly privatize the pension program…Meaningful reforms to shore up the federal entitlement program won’t advance in Congress until privatization is off the table, Lincoln said.” [Associated Press, 8/2/2005]
Lincoln Co-Authored Letter to President Bush Expressing Concern Over Privatization Plan. In 2005, Sen. Lincoln, along with 8 other Democratic Women Senators, authored a letter to President Bush expressing “their deep concern over news reports outlining President Bush’s intention to include survivor benefit cuts in his Social Security privatization plan.” [Senator Patty Murray Press Release, 5/12/2005]
