Tucson, Ariz. – Today we learned that Jesse Kelly not only wants to privatize Social Security, but after weeks of saying that these private accounts were “guaranteed,” he has finally admitted that there would be no help for seniors who lose their Social Security in the event of a stock market crash: “The government stays out of it—that’s the guarantee.”

For months on the primary campaign trail, Jesse Kelly made his position on Social Security crystal clear: “Right now… you have to take steps to reform it, to privatize it, to phase it out.” (KUAT CD8 GOP primary debate, 7/30/10, approximately 46 minutes into the debate, http://ondemand.azpm.org/videoshorts/watch/2010/7/30/1648-gop-candidates-in-congressional-district-8/)

However, since winning his party’s nomination, Kelly has undergone a general election makeover, claiming he wants to “protect” Social Security and supports a privatization scheme in which seniors “choose guaranteed, protected, private accounts.” (Jesse Kelly, Town Hall, Oro Valley Country Club, 9/9/10,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y6xpHKEgKs).

But today the real Jesse Kelly slipped out.

In the Tucson Weekly that hit newsstands this morning, Kelly is asked about the guarantee on the “private accounts” he supports.  Kelly’s answer is absolute: “‘The government stays out of it,’ Kelly says. ‘That’s the guarantee.’”

As the Weekly reports, “While Kelly has been telling audiences that the private accounts would be guaranteed, he said last week that he didn’t think the government should step in to bail out the accounts in the event of a downturn in the stock market. He says there’s no need to do so, because stock market downturns are never serious enough to require such a guarantee… Kelly says he doesn’t plan to bail out anyone who makes a bad investment.”

“Jesse Kelly says he wants to privatize Social Security with ‘guaranteed’ private accounts, and he has finally explained how that guarantee will work,” said Giffords for Congress campaign manager Rodd McLeod. “If you lose your Social Security in the stock market, Jesse Kelly guarantees that you won’t get any help. You’re on your own. Thinking back over American history, it’s hard to think of a candidate who has shown more hostility to seniors than Jesse Kelly has. He ought to remember, he’ll be elderly some day, too.”

Social Security has kept millions of seniors out of poverty for the past 75 years. Today in the U.S., one in 12 seniors live in poverty; without Social Security, that number would be one in two.

Gabrielle Giffords is a third generation Southern Arizonan and the only person in Congress with an active duty military spouse. Gabrielle is not like other politicians. She takes an independent view on the issues and was rated Arizona’s most moderate member of Congress by the National Journal in 2009. She’s voted against a Congressional pay raise every time one has come up, and she doesn’t make earmark requests for campaign contributors. Most importantly, Gabrielle stands up for Southern Arizona by working across the aisle to secure the border, protect our military and veterans and creates jobs by investing in solar energy.

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