NEW ORLEANS– President Bush’s plan to overhaul Social Security could bring jobs to thiscity’s federal payroll processing office because it already deals with a similarprivate savings system for federal employees, Louisiana’s Republican in theU.S. Senate said Friday.
More than1,200 people work at the National Finance Center, in eastern New Orleans, wherethey administer the federal Thrift Savings Plan, a retirement fund for about3.2 million federal employees.
That systemis similar to the vision Bush has for Social Security, in which all Americanworkers would be able to invest some of their Social Security money.
Sen. DavidVitter called it “a stretch, but very realistic” to foresee an increase in jobsat the New Orleans facility if Bush’s plan gets through Congress.
“I thinkthere are enormous opportunities for continued growth in employment” at thecenter, Vitter said. “This is a great part of our Louisiana economy: high-tech,clean, good, high-paying jobs.”
Vitter is asupporter of Bush’s plan, but it faces opposition from both Democrats andRepublicans in Congress. U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a New Orleans Democrat, hascriticized it, saying it would endanger Social Security as a whole.
After thepresident’s Feb. 2 State of the Union speech, Landrieu said the president’splan “fails to recognize that there are already any number of private systemsfor savings that the system already subsidizes, if you will.
Why does thePresident want to take the security out of Social Security?”
Vitter wasat the finance center Friday with Bush’s new agriculture secretary, formerNebraska Gov. Mike Johanns, who toured the facility. Johanns’ agency overseesthe center.
