Category: Ashlee Picard
Sununu Calls for Personal Savings Retirement Plan
WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 – Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., called Thursday for immediate action in reforming Social Security, saying that allowing people to create personal savings accounts for retirement would give them “more power.”
“If you believe that we ought to make changes, now is the time to do it to be able to transition gradually… to a system that gives individuals more power, more control and more long-term opportunity to make investments.,” Sununu said during a forum at the National Press Club.
The Social Security program is not meeting the needs of current demographics or the increase in life expectancy, Sununu said.
“To stick with this system as it was designed, to me is like saying you have to stick with the rotary phone,” said Stephen Moore, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, who also spoke at the forum. “The system is in dire need of modernization.”
Sununu introduced a bill last September that would have allowed workers to invest 10 percent of the first $10,000 of their wages in personal retirement accounts. On wages above $10,000, they would have been able to put five percent of their taxable wages into their personal savings accounts. The money invested would have come out of the Social Security payroll tax, which is currently 12.4 percent of wages.
Investors would have had several regulated investment options, including stocks and bonds, much like the Thrift Savings Plan for federal employees, according to a press release from Sununu when he introduced the bill. The plan also would have guaranteed a minimum benefit.
“This kind of reform is of enormous value to people earning say $20,000 or $30,000,” he said. “If you are earning $30,000 a year and paying more than $3,000 or $3,500 in payroll taxes, that makes it pretty tough for you to have disposable income available to invest in IRAs and 401Ks.”
Sununu said in a press release that he plans to reintroduce the bill this term.
Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., and New York Times economic columnist Paul Krugman also participated in the forum. Both opposed Sununu’s plan-and the similar one President Bush outlined in his State of the Union address..
The Social Security program should not be eliminated, Krugman said, because the federal government has a responsibility to protect its citizens from poverty.
“No one is preventing people from investing on their own.. Social Security is the great pillar of security in case that stuff doesn’t work out,” he said.
Sununu said his system would give people more “ownership” over their money.
“Many people feel uncomfortable with the idea of empowering the individual,” Sununu said. “Bad things sometimes happen when people make bad decisions, but that is not a reason to oppose the idea of giving them a little bit more power, a little bit more responsibility, and a little bit more voice in the future.”
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Meehan Places Super Bowl Bet
WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 - Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., has been in the stands to cheer on the New England Patriots during their last two Super Bowl victories. This year, he has even more reason to root for his favorite football team.
He and Rep. Robert Brady, D-Pa., waged a bet yesterday on Sunday's game, which will have their two home teams, the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles, pitted against one another.
The terms?
If Meehan's beloved Patriots lose the game on Sunday he will have to wear an Eagles helmet and carry a pair of Eagles cheerleader pom poms everywhere he goes for a week. If the Patriots win, Brady is the one who will have to wear a New England helmet.
The only time they will be allowed to take off the helmet is when they are on the floor of the House of Representatives where no hats are permitted. Whenever they are in the chamber, they must hold the victor's helmet in their hands.
But Meehan said he's not concerned about facing any potential embarrassment and the thought of losing the bet and being forced to sport an Eagles helmet hasn't even crossed his mind.
"I don't even think there's a remote possibility that I'll have to do that," Meehan said. "I have a lot of confidence in the team."
Meehan, who's been a Patriots season ticket-holder for 21 years, attended a Patriots-Eagles game last year with Brady, whose wife Debbie is a former Eagles cheerleader who is providing the pom poms for the bet. The Patriots won that game, 31-10.
"We've been thinking about the possibility of this game all year," said Meehan.
Meehan's wife, Ellen, who is also a Patriots fan, usually accompanies Meehan to the team's home games.
"My favorite player is Troy Brown," Meehan said. "He's the ultimate team player."
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Tierney Reacts to State of the Union
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 - U.S. Rep. John Tierney said Wednesday night that President Bush's State of the Union address did not show any "investment in this country's future."
"I think it was a continuation of a campaign speech promising tax cuts at the expense of investing in our future and our children," Tierney, a Salem Democrat said in an interview.
He added that Bush was "betraying the trust of Americans" by proposing, in his plan to strengthen Social Security, to cut younger Americans' retirement benefits.
"I think he's going to get very little support on that," Tierney said. When today's younger Americans reach retirement age, he said, they would never be able to earn back the money that they would be losing by not having the retirement benefits that exist today.
On Iraq, Tierney said he had hoped Bush would be "more clear" in describing an exit strategy for U.S. troops in that country. He said he did not agree with Bush's refusal to set a timetable for withdrawing the troops. "It continues to look like he has no plan," Tierney said. "It's an unhealthy situation."
Tierney said Bush should have started talking with the newly elected Iraqi government about an exit strategy and should be speaking to other countries about creating safe borders for Iraq.
Before Bush's address, Tierney, who is the only New England representative on the House Committee on Education and the Workplace, said in a statement that he would be listening to see how the President addressed education concerns. "I think he totally didn't say anything about education or health plans, except programs that are already effective," Tierney said. Bush, he said, isn't investing money in research development, biotechnology or energy needs, but he is giving it to people in the top one to three percent income levels in tax breaks. "He hasn't shown us what he's going to do to bring our young people into the 20th century," Tierney said.
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HUD Announces Grant Awards
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded more than $1.9 million in grants to eight homeless assistance programs in the Essex County area.
The money will go through the Continuum of Care program, which works to provide homeless people with permanent and transitional housing as well as job training, health care and substance abuse treatment.
Organizations receiving grants submitted new or renewal applications, which were "ranked and rated," said Kristine Foye, the regional HUD spokesperson.
Action Inc., a Gloucester-based anti-poverty agency, will receive a renewal grant for $120,120, the amount that it requested.
According to Ralph Johnson, Action Inc.'s housing director, the grant will fund Project Achievement, which helps people in the group's homeless shelter find jobs.
"They may have some skills and just need job placement," Johnson said. "Through the Project Achievement program people can receive training that could either put them on a new job track or get employed through some kind of employment placement network."
Ronna Resnick, the director of employment and training at Action Inc., said that Project Achievement offers an entrepreneurship program for people at its Moore's Way shelter in Gloucester who "have terrific craft skills that can be developed through an entrepreneurial arm."
The program provides start-up money and buys basic equipment for participants who want to start their own businesses, Resnick said. In addition to two jewelry-makers, the program is currently helping a contractor who wants to start his own business.
"He has been working for a contractor to really get skills," Resnick said. "Now we're supplying him with basic tools and equipment so that he can start working on his own."
Turning Point, a human-services agency based in Newburyport, will be receiving a renewal grant for $280,745.
Geri Dorr, president of Turning Point, said the money would help provide housing for women who leave the group's battered women's shelter, one of two shelters in the state that accepts women who are "newly sober" or sober for less than six months.
"When women are ready to leave shelter, we have scattered housing sites available for them," Dorr said. "It's part of the continuum of services that we run."
The housing sites, located throughout the Newburyport, Amesbury and Salisbury areas, also are available for women from other shelters, according to Dorr.
The Veterans Northeast Outreach Center in Haverhill was awarded a renewal grant of $135, 828.
The center, which has received the grants for four years, will be using the money to provide 24-hour staffing for its 25 homeless residents, according to John Ratka, the executive director.
Other programs that received grants were Crombie Street United Church of Christ in Salem; North Shore Home Consortium and North Shore Community Action Program, both based in Peabody; and Emmaus Inc. in Haverhill.
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Meehan Proposes Iraq Exit Plan
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 - U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan is offering a plan to begin removing the majority of American forces in Iraq by the end of the year.
He will talk about his proposal during an appearance on ABC News's "Nightline" Thursday night, where he will be part of a panel discussing the future of the U.S. military presence in Iraq after the elections in that country Sunday.
On Tuesday, the Lowell Democrat discussed his strategy for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan Washington think-tank.
"Changing the dynamic in Iraq means handing the security of the Iraqi people back to the
Iraqis and bringing an end to the occupation," he said.
His plan calls for the withdrawal of almost all American troops in phases over the next 12-18 months.
"Only a small and mobile force would remain by mid-2006, two years after the transfer of sovereignty," he said in his speech.
A member of the House Armed Services Committee, Meehan visited Iraq and Afghanistan earlier this month and recently published a White Paper outlining his withdrawal plan..
Meehan, in his Brookings speech, said announcing a schedule for decreasing U.S. troop strength in Iraq would encourage the Iraqi people to cooperate with one another in building their government "rather than relying on American troops to make the sacrifices. A withdrawal could be structured.to create incentives for violent factions within Iraq to come to the negotiating table rather than engaging in armed insurrection."
Meehan added that the military would benefit from a planned schedule for withdrawal.
"I met with many of our soldiers and Marines. Their spirits are high and morale is strong," he said in his speech. "But they and their families want a reasonable expectation of when this mission will end."
According to Emily Lenzner, a communications director for "Nightline," Meehan and other panelists will be participating in a town meeting-style forum to debate whether American troops should stay in Iraq after the election on Sunday.
"When you want to fight for an issue you need to get out and speak about it. I want to keep the pressure on so that policy makers are constantly reassessing.." Meehan said Wednesday during a phone interview. "One of the first things I need to do is win support for my plan from Congress and the American people."
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Weather Plays Its Role at the Inauguration
WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 - He may only have been in third grade at the time, but Steve Amoroso of Methuen still remembers attending former President Clinton's first inauguration ceremony with his family in 1992.
When he recalls that day, the temperature is one of the first memories that come to his mind.
"It was cold," said the 21-year-old George Washington University student. "I got to meet Senator Kerry. I was pretty little but I was always interested in politics."
He hasn't missed a presidential inauguration since. This term, even though his family opted out of attending the event, Amoroso decided he wanted to keep the tradition alive.
On Wednesday afternoon, he called Representative Marty Meehan's congressional office to see if any more tickets were available and was lucky enough to reserve the last two of roughly 200 tickets distributed by the office.
Later that night, he and about 20 others stopped by Meehan's office at the Capitol to pick up their tickets during a welcoming reception held by the representative's staff. Many of them had hoped to see Meehan, who was supposed to host the reception.
But Meehan was stuck in Boston because his flight from Logan Airport was delayed due to weather concerns, according to his staff assistant Shilpa Phadke.
"He called to give his regards to everyone here," Phadke announced early during the reception as visitors milled around Meehan's office. They studied photographs lining the walls, watched a TV showing inauguration coverage, and talked about their plans for the week while helping themselves to refreshments.
Amoroso said he has arranged to watch the Al Franken Show broadcasting live from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington after the swearing-in ceremony.
He also hopes to see some protests, which he said were more abundant at Bush's first inauguration than Clinton's inaugurations.
"Bush's inauguration had a lot of protestors.I wouldn't mind that again because they're fun to watch," Amoroso said.
For Terry Hegarty of Tewksbury, the swearing-in ceremony will be the best part of the ceremony. A 21-year-old student at Catholic University of America in Washington, Hegarty made weekly trips to Bush's campaign headquarters in Virginia last spring to do volunteer campaign work.
"After all the campaign trips, I'm looking forward to him taking the oath," he said. "I feel that I've contributed in some small way to that."
Rick Hanson of Chelmsford attended the reception only hours after he arrived in Washington on an Amtrak high-speed train. According to Hanson, who went to former President Clinton's second inauguration, partisanship should be cast aside during the inauguration in order to yield support to the President.
"It's history. It's an aura of excitement all around the city. There's patriotic pride in being here," said the Budweiser beer distributor for the greater Lowell and Lawrence area.
Many of the visitors at the reception discussed the current weather as well as the weather for the upcoming days, sharing strategies for staying warm during the many outdoor inauguration festivities.
But Robert Hargraves, the state representative for the first Middlesex District, didn't seem worried about the cold. He and his wife, Ellen, arrived early during the reception to pick up their tickets for the ceremonies.
"We're ready for it. We're New Englanders," he said.
