Oct 12, 2011
Rob Cornilles Opens the Door to Dismantling Oregon Seniors’ Social Security and Medicare
Tea Party congressional candidate Rob Cornilles has joined Washington Republicans in supporting schemes to leave seniors’ retirement subject to the whims of Wall Street and private insurance companies. Cornilles supports private options for Medicare and Social Security – the same rhetoric we see from Tea Party House Republicans who support privatizing Social Security and ending Medicare. After Cornilles left the door open to dismantling seniors’ guaranteed retirement benefits, it’s time for him to come clean to Oregon voters about where he really stands.
“Tea Party candidate Rob Cornilles has admitted his support of so-called private options for Medicare and Social Security and he should come clean and admit that’s nothing but the same old scheme to subject seniors’ retirement to the whims of Wall Street and private insurance companies,” said Amber Moon, Western Regional Press Secretary at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “It’s past time for Tea Party candidate Rob Cornilles to admit that he’s just like House Republican leaders in Washington who want to gamble away the health and livelihood of Oregon seniors.”
Background:
Supported a Private Option for Medicare. In 2011, Cornilles said he supported a “hybrid” approach of giving seniors a choice between the existing system and a private option in relation to the Republican budget plan. [Oregonian, 10/11/11]
Supported Private Option for Social Security. When asked about the Ryan Plan, Cornilles said, “Right now there’s two plans, essentially, one is to let Social Security go bankrupt by doing nothing, by allowing it to just continue on its present course. And the other is to take it totally private. I think that somewhere in between, I think you create an opportunity rather to allow people more choice.” [Pacific University Candidate Forum, 31:54, 10/9/11]
House Republicans Propose Social Security Opt-Out. “House Republicans [in June] introduced legislation that would allow workers to partially opt out of Social Security immediately, and fully opt out after 15 years.” The measure was introduced by NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions (TX-32) and Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (TX-05) among others. [The Hill, 6/6/11]
Republican Ryan Budget Ends Medicare As We Know It. “The plan would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills.” [Wall Street Journal, 4/4/11]
Supported Cutting Social Security and Medicare Before Defense. In 2010, Cornilles said that he would cut spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare before trimming the defense budget. [Daily Astorian, 1/21/10]
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