WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 21, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- A new national senior citizens organization today calls for Social Security and Medicare reform in Congress while ripping opponents, in the words of founder and chairman Jerry Barton, "whose lack of vision is a betrayal of senior Americans."
The National Association for Senior Concerns (NASCON, www.nascon.org) introduced itself at the National Press Club, highlighted by endorsement of a new bill, Stop the Raid on Social Security Act, sponsored in the House by Rep. James McCrery, R-La., and in the Senate by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. "Currently the government takes the Social Security surplus and spends it, leaving an IOU -- this legislation stops the raid by appropriating the surplus to the personal accounts of workers each year," Barton says. "After the first couple of years, during which workers are limited to investing the accounts only in government bonds, workers will voluntarily be able to choose from a full-range of stock and corporate bond funds."
Barton calls Medicare "the most abused and wasteful of all federal programs that could be bankrupt even before Social Security," and said reform "must be made a higher congressional priority."
"As for the Bush administration's 2004 totalization agreement with Mexico which, if implemented, would provide for giving Social Security benefits to any illegal alien who works or has worked in the United States," Barton said, "Congress must never approve such political insanity."
Broadway, film and TV personality Peter Marshall, the group's honorary national chairman, said the Atlanta-based NASCON was formed because "the AARP has a radical agenda, and other senior groups basically eat, meet and retreat." Marshall also outlined the NASCON benefits of membership ranging from pharmacy and travel discounts to tax consultations and insurance.
For further information, call Phil Kent (404) 226-3549 or Dave Scott (770) 354-7228. Website: www.nascon.org