U.S. Representative Melvin Watt (D-N.C.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), today urged President Bush to stop his misguided public relations campaign to privatize Social Security and to begin a real, substantive analysis of the issue. Congressman Watt's remarks were made during a CBC hearing on Capitol Hill to examine the impact of privatization on African Americans.

Rep. Watt also said the President should stop citing the shorter life expectancy of African Americans in an attempt to sell his Social Security privatization plan and suggested that he take real steps to increase the life expectancy of African Americans by encouraging the Republican leadership in Congress to bring the CBC minority health bill to the House and Senate for a vote.

"The President and his party would do African Americans more good if they addressed the disparities in healthcare that lead to premature death rather than weakening Social Security as a distraction," Rep. Watt noted. "The bottom line is that taking money out of the current system would have a catastrophic affect on the quality of life for African Americans who collect disability, survivor or retirement benefits."

According to a report recently released by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), "The Social Security Privatization Crisis: Assessing the Impact on African American Families," Social Security benefits are the only source of retirement income for 40 percent of older African Americans and without these benefits the poverty rate for African American seniors would more than double. Almost 80 percent of African American seniors rely on Social Security for more than 50 percent of their income, the paper noted.

The report also stated that African American children are especially reliant on Social Security's steady benefits, comprising 20 percent of all retired worker child beneficiaries, 23 percent of all child survivor beneficiaries and 21 percent of all disabled worker child recipients. Additionally, African Americans account for 18 percent of Social Security disability beneficiaries.

"The President needs to drop his insistence on private accounts so that we can work on a bipartisan solution that protects Social Security," noted Rep. Charles Rangel. "Social Security gives African Americans a secure retirement foundation, one that allows those of us who can take risks and save and invest to build wealth. Instead of privatizing Social Security, we need to work in a manner to strengthen the program."

Turning to the issue of solvency, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones noted that if solvency were the aim of reform, privatization does nothing to aid in resolving the solvency crisis.

"Social Security is solvent through almost the next fifty years if we do absolutely nothing at all," Tubbs Jones said. "The Administration would like for you to believe that privatization is better for African Americans than the current system, but future plans of privatization would decimate the real value of social insurance benefits to African Americans because historical disparities remain in place."

Dr. Maya Rockeymoore, vice president of Research and Programs for the CBCF, said a variety of factors rooted in socio-economic inequities cause African Americans to use the Social Security program differently than whites.

"Historical patterns of racial discrimination in the U.S. and the adverse impact of certain public policies have affected African Americans in the key areas of education, labor and health," Dr. Rockeymoore noted. "As a result, African Americans are more likely to earn a modest living during the course of their working lives, more likely to have experienced spells of unemployment or underemployment, more likely to retire with less income from private pensions or savings and more likely to experience disability or early death."

Dr. Rockeymoore stressed that African Americans must ensure that Social Security benefits are not diminished by proposals to privatize the system.

"Because African Americans disproportionately earn less than their white counterparts and are less likely to have private pensions, it is especially important that Social Security's guaranteed safety net be there to protect them in the event of an economic downturn or stock market crash," Dr. Rockeymoore concluded.