http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050516/ap_on_go_co/social_security_pozenWASHINGTON - A registered Democrat, Robert Pozen has little to gain politically from the Social Security solvency plan that he drafted and that now is heralded by President Bush, whom the former Massachusetts economic development chief voted against in November. Nonetheless, Pozen has become a favorite witness at congressional hearings, promoting his idea of "progressive indexing" for future benefits.
At age 58, Pozen has no personal stake in the current Social Security debate because neither President Bush nor Congress has advocated changing the existing system for workers over 55.
It's a fair bet, too, that Pozen, a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School who has been an executive of two major financial institutions, has set aside enough of his own money for a comfortable retirement.
Democrats say he is being used by the White House as part of what they contend is Bush's plan to undermine the federal retirement and insurance program.
Pozen says his idea is fair and timely.
"The White House goes out of its way to identify you more by your party label than by what you're saying," New York Rep. Charles Rangel (news, bio, voting record), the senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, told Pozen during a nearly six-hour hearing last week.
"I would hope that the White House agrees with some of the concepts in progressive indexing," Pozen replied.
Rangel answered: "Take my word for it: Your name would not have been projected as much as it is if you were not a Democrat."
Under Pozen's plan, retirees with average career earnings of $25,000 a year or less — about 30 percent of the work force — would continue to see their benefits linked to wage growth.
People with average annual earnings of at least $113,000 and above would see their benefits linked to prices, which historically have risen less rapidly than wages. Retirees in between would see their benefits linked to a blend of each index.
Such a plan could eliminate about three-quarters of the $3.8 trillion benefit shortfall projected over the next 75 years for Social Security. Bush repeatedly has referred to the plan since the news conference in March when he first cited the work of "a Democrat economist named of Pozen."
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