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Ken Buck Falsely Asserts: ‘I’ve Never Said We Should Privatize Social Security’

A whole host of Republican congressional candidates and lawmakers — including former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-PA) — have tried to run away from their support for Social Security privatization, denying that they favor such a move (despite continuing to call for the creation of personal Social Security accounts). Last night, Colorado’s Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck became to latest to deny that his privatization plan would actually privatize the system:

“I’ve never said we should privatize Social Security,” [Buck] told [Sen. Michael] Bennet, whose committee has made that accusation against Buck in television ads.

Contrary to his assertion, Buck has been a full-throated supporter of privatization, saying, “we’ve got to peg Social Security to individuals so those individuals have the ability perhaps to invest in various funds that are approved by the government. But those individuals also own that fund.” In fact, Buck has questioned whether the federal government should have any role in a retirement plan at all, saying “the idea the federal government should be running health care or retirement or any of those programs is fundamentally against what I believe and that is that the private sector runs programs like that far better.” As The Wonk Room explained, Buck’s claim that his plan would limit investments to safe, government approved funds, is also dubious.

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