The Democratic nominee recently came under fire in revealing articles by Naked Capitalism’s Yves Smith and International Business Times’ David Sirota, for her potential plans to introduce mandatory retirement savings accounts set up to enrich Wall Street — rather than expanding Social Security.
Under the new mandatory accounts, Americans would pay a 1.5 percent payroll tax to go directly into retirement accounts managed by Wall Street banks that would invest in private equity, hedge funds, and other investments that would come with hefty fees for fund managers, all courtesy of U.S. taxpayers. One of the biggest proponents of mandatory retirement savings accounts is Blackstone CEO Tony James — one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest campaign donors — who is a possible pick for Treasury Secretary in a Clinton administration.
In an email to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta leaked by WikiLeaks, James laid out the details of the retirement savings account proposal, while simultaneously making the case to dismantle Social Security.
“We do not believe the problem can be solved by making Social Security better funded and/or adding a higher minimum benefits for several reasons,” James wrote. “Social Security was designed as a safety net for those facing poverty in old age. It was never meant to be a vehicle to guarantee a middle class retirement,” he continued.
However, according to the Social Security administration’s website, Social Security was designed to “assure workers that their years of employment entitled them to a life income.”
