Texas Democratic Party: Moving Texas Forward

Democrats today highlighted banker Quico Canseco’s support for privatizing social security and gambling seniors’ livelihood on Wall Street as he heads into a run-off for the Republican nomination in Texas’s 23^rd district. The newly proposed GOP Leadership budget in Washington includes a return to discredited plans to privatize Social Security on Wall Street. 

“Texas seniors can’t afford to let Quico Canseco and his cronies in Washington and on Wall Street gamble their hard-earned Social Security funds on the stock market,” said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie. “Canseco is just another banker who is so out-of-touch with middle class families that he thinks risking Social Security is a good idea.” 

The GOP Leadership budget was introduced by ranking Republican budget committee member, Representative Paul Ryan. 

Background

Banker. Canseco has been working with Hondo National Bank since early 1995, he stepped down from the board in 2007 to run for Congress.  During his 2004 campaign, Canseco touted his banking experience leading to his election to the Hondo National Bank Board of Directors, where he was appointed as Chairman of the Board of the bank’s holding company, Texas Heritage Bancshares.  He reported still collecting a director’s fee from Hondo National Bank on his 2009 personal financial disclosure.  [San Antonio Express-News, 12/09/07; www.cansecoforcongress.com, 2/14/04 (archive.org); 3/02/10; Personal Financial Disclosure, 2009] 

Canseco backs privatization. In 2004, “During an interview, Canseco argued for the need to privatize Social Security.”  [Laredo Morning Times, 3/02/04] 

House GOP Leaders Support Privatizing Social Security. In May 2001, now GOP leader John Boehener, Whip Eric Cantor, and NRCC Chairman Representative Pete Sessions, co-signed a letter to the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security urging for privatization. The letter read, “Social Security reform must offer younger workers the opportunity to improve their rates of return using personal retirement accounts.” [Rep. Jim DeMint Letter to The Social Security Reform Commission, 5/24/01] 

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein writes that under House Republican Ranking Member of the Budget Committee Paul Ryan’s budget proposal reforms are “nothing short of violent. Medicare is privatized. Seniors get a voucher to buy private insurance, and the voucher’s growth is far slower than the expected growth of health-care costs. Medicaid is also privatized. The employer tax exclusion is fully eliminated, replaced by a tax credit that grows more slowly than medical costs. And beyond health care, Social Security gets guaranteed, private accounts that CBO says will actually cost more than the present arrangement, further underscoring how ancillary the program is to our budget problem.” [The Washington Post, 2/1/10; Ranking Republican of Budget Committee Paul Ryan Web site] 

Had seniors been relying on private social security accounts in the Stock Market during the 2008 collapse, they might have lost nearly 40% of their retirement savings in the 12 months leading up to the collapse.  On October 9, 2007 the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 14,164.53.  On October 9, 2008 the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 8,579.19.  [History of Dow Jones Industrial Average, http://www.mdleasing.com/djia.htm; http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=^DJI&a=09&b=9&c=2007&d=09&e=9&f=2008&g=d&z=66&y=198]