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.

“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

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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