6-16-08, 11:49 am

At a town hall meeting in New Hampshire recently Republican nominee John McCain responded to an audience question on Social Security privatization by saying, 'I am not for quote 'privatization of Social Security.' I never have been, never will be.”

The statement contradicts, however, earlier comments McCain has made in support of the privatization of Social Security. In 2004, for example, McCain said, 'Without privatization, I don't see how we can possibly over time make sure that young Americans can receive Social Security benefits.'

More recently, last March, John McCain told the Wall Street Journal that he would pursue President Bush's policies on privatizing Social Security. “As part of Social Security reform,' he reportedly stated, 'I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it – along the lines that President Bush proposed.'

“Senator McCain always has been and always will be a privatizer,” said Edward Coyle, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans.

But John McCain doesn't just favor privatizing Social Security, he wants to cut Social Security benefits for retirees, the disabled, and their dependents. As part of his plan to push huge tax cuts for the very wealthy and powerful corporations like the oil industry, in line again with George W. Bush policies, John McCain proposes to balance the federal budget by cutting social spending, including and especially what he calls 'runaway' spending on Social Security and Medicare benefits.

In what is becoming a familiar pattern with McCain, he had at one point opposed Bush's tax policies, denouncing them as requiring too little sacrifice from the most privileged people in a time of war. In the run-up to the campaign for the Republican nomination, John McCain, knowing he couldn't secure the nomination without an anti-tax stance, suddenly shifted his position to favor them.

The Tax Policy Center, according to recent media accounts, estimates that John McCain's tax plan would reduce federal revenue by more than $5 trillion over 10 years. This means that under a McCain presidency, in addition to few serious new alternative energy investments and cuts to public education and anti-poverty programs, seniors, the disabled, and the sick can expect huge cuts in funding for Social Security and Medicare benefits.

New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman reported recently that a McCain budget with his tax plan in place would in fact 'require cutting Social Security benefits by three-quarters, eliminating Medicare, or something equivalently drastic.'

John McCain wants to disguise his record on Social Security by putting out a flurry of contradictory press statements and clarifications, but the truth is he would continue Bush's tax policies and Social Security privatization policies. He also plans to gut Social Security and Medicare in an unprecedented manner that even George W. Bush could not have imagined.

--Reach Joel Wendland at