Compliance February 5, 2001

Social Security Commission Membership Assailed By Democrats

May 2, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - President Bush will officially announce his commission to craft a plan to fix Social Security today - but some Democrats have already criticized the selections as biased toward a certain result.
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“This is a stacked, completely orchestrated effort to come to a desired result,” according to Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. Critics believe the commission is comprised of individuals predisposed toward some form of Social Security privatization.

Committee Membership

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Aides have confirmed that the committee will be co-chaired by former Democratic New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Richard Parsons , AOL Time Warner’s co-chief operating officer.

In addition the commission of seven Republicans and seven Democrats also includes:

  • Sam Beard , author of “Restoring Hope in America: The Social Security Solution,’ and former aide to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
  • Former Bush campaign aide John Cogan of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
  • Former Rep. Tim Penny , D-Minn., a co-director of the Humphrey Institute Policy Forum at the University of Minnesota.
  • Carolyn Weaver , former director of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank.

According to Dow Jones, other possible commission members include:

  • Robert Deposada , Hispanic Business Roundtable executive director
  • Estelle James , economist at World Bank
  • Robert Johnson , Black Entertainment Television chairman
  • Gwen King , Social Security commissioner under President Reagan
  • Olivia Mitchel of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School
  • Jerry Parsky , a California businessman
  • Tom Saving , Texas A&M University economics professor and Social Security trustee
  • Fidel Vargas , 1996 Social Security Advisory Council member.

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