UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - The race for the 24th Congressional District seat continues to heat up, as incumbent Congressman Michael Arcuri says he wants his opponent Richard Hanna to reverse his views on social security. Arcuri says that he believes Hanna's views on Social Security would endanger the program - a claim which Hanna's camp adamantly says is false.

"Richard Hanna is in lockstep 100% with his party when it comes to Social Security, supporting privatization - and even elimination - of this critical program," said Arcuri campaign manager Jordan Karp.  "While Mike Arcuri continues to pledge to protect seniors from risky privatization schemes, Hanna wants to see Social Security gambled away,"

For support of the claim, Karp says he points to Hanna's public biography, which cites Hanna's membership of the Foundation on Economic Education, an organization that Karp says advocates abolishing Social Security entirely. What Karp is referring to is a September 2005 newsletter for the organization in which the organization's President - Richard Ebeling - writes a column viewing his own points of reason for abolishing the Social Security System.

The Arcuri Campaign Spokesperson goes on to say that he feels Hanna would "recklessly gamble seniors' Social Security money on the stock market," because of Hanna's acceptance of $4,000 in contributions from the National Republican Congressional Committee, because, an organization which Karp says "touts support for creation of risky private accounts."

However, in the National Republican Congressional Committee website link provided by the Arcuri Spokesperson, the NRCC notes the dangers of losing the Social Security system, stating:

"Republicans are committed to ensuring seniors receive every penny in Social Security benefits they have earned over a lifetime of hard work...Republicans understand that while Social Security is safe for today's seniors, it is in serious danger for our children and grandchildren. Because Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system, today's workers pay to support today's retirees."

The organization's site then goes on to state the following:

"House Republicans have set out these guidelines for strengthening Social Security

• There will be no benefit change for those receiving Social Security and those near retirement. For seniors, nothing will change, and nobody is going to take away their check.
• Voluntary personal accounts, as part of a comprehensive solution, will give younger workers the option to save some payroll taxes in a personal account - a nest egg they can call their own, government cannot take away, and they can pass on to their children.
• The current system cannot afford to pay promised benefits to younger workers. Today's 30-year old worker can expect a 27% benefit reduction when he or she reaches normal retirement age. Personal accounts give younger workers the opportunity to receive higher benefits than the current system can afford to pay.
• Personal accounts will provide Americans who choose to participate with an opportunity to share in the benefits of economic growth by participating in markets through sound investments. Any proposal will include limitations on the risk of investments permitted in personal accounts and will include low-risk, low-cost options like broad index funds similar to those currently available to Federal employees."

"In regards to Social Security, Karp has his facts wrong as usual. Hanna fully supports Social Security as a means for providing retirement for so many in our community," said Hanna Campaign Spokesperson Renee Gamela. "He has no interest in changing the program except to ensure the stability of the system for those who depend on it. Hanna has publicly declared so time and time again since he announced his candidacy."

Karp says that in the 2006 campaign, Arcuri was the only candidate to sign a pledge to oppose any efforts to privatize Social Security and has kept that promise to Upstate seniors. In that 2006 election, then-District Attorney Arcuri ran against then-Senator Raymond Meier.

"Mr. Arcuri and the Washington bosses should stop spending the proceeds taken in by the system each year.  The last two budgets Mr. Arcuri voted for spending money in the trust fund for general spending leaving a big IOU for recipients," Gamela went on to say. "That's wrong and Mr. Arcuri should be ashamed of himself for jeopardizing the retirements of so many in Central New York."

"Richard Hanna needs to look our region's seniors in the eye and tell them why he would take their much-needed monthly benefits away," said Karp.  "Try as he might, he can't run from his party's failed policies and his own beliefs." 

"If Mike Arcuri wants to talk about the issues in this campaign, he should stop hiding behind his Washington, D.C. attack dog, Jordan Karp.  Karp is nothing more than a hired gun from outside this community, and Mike Arcuri's failure to stand on his own two feet is symbolic that he is nothing more than a puppet of the Washington political bosses, who he votes with almost 98 percent of the time and from whom he takes 85 percent of his campaign funds," Gamela said.