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CAG Issues - Social Security
Keep the Promise of Social Security
The Bush administration has made privatizing Social Security one of its major domestic priorities for this year. Social Security is the nation's best family insurance program, providing guaranteed benefits for the majority of Americans. The president's privatization plan takes away the guarantee by cutting benefits and gambling what's left in the stock market. The plan's real winners are Bush's friends on Wall Street.
Contrary to the claims of the Bush administration, Social Security is not in crisis. With relatively meager adjustments, Social Security's 70 year legacy can continue well into the next century. However, the Bush administration is proposing to privatize a portion of the system which would result in benefit cuts of up to 45% and 1–2 Trillion dollars worth of borrowing on top of already astronomical deficits. Write your representatives and tell them not to support any proposal that privatizes Social Security, calls for cuts in benefits, or increases the national debt.
(Use this
Social Security Privatization Calculator (opens in a new window) to see how much you will lose under the new plan.)
WV-CAG and the Campaign to Save Social Security
In February 2005, WV-CAG became part of a statewide coalition aimed at protecting America’s most successful anti-poverty program, Social Security. The coalition, West Virginians United to Protect Social Security, includes a diverse array of advocates, women’s groups, disability organizations, labor unions, retiree organizations and professional organizations. We are committed to coordinating our efforts to protect Social Security from privatization and cuts in guaranteed benefits.
Over 1000 West Virginians have signed our petition urging our members of Congress to pledge to oppose Social Security privatization, which would cut guaranteed benefits, increase the federal deficit, open Social Security up to corruption and Enron-ization and possibly raise the retirement age.
New Resources to Download
VICTORY!
Social Security Resolutions Adopted in the Mountain State
State
State Senate
House of Delegates
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Cabell
Fayette
Kanawha
Jackson
Marion
Mason |
McDowell
Monroe
Raleigh
Wayne
Webster |
Cities
South Charleston
Ravenswood
Clay
Other groups
Marion County Democrat Executive Committee
Marion County Democrat Men’s Club
Marion County Democrat Women’s Club
Online Petition:
TAKE ACTION!
West Virginians United to
Protect Social Security
I, the undersigned, feel that Social Security can be strengthened by modest means and are opposed to the proposal to privatize Social Security by diverting its tax revenue to private accounts. Furthermore, we are opposed to any benefit cuts for present or future retires and to any borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund.
I agree to join with other groups/organizations and individual signing this document to work together in an ad hoc coalition to educate the public and out representatives on the basis of our concerns on how to strengthen Social Security without harming it.
Contact information is optional - required fields are marked by
*
If you would like WV United to contact you with more information about what you can do to help, please send an email to Ted Boettner, ted@wvcag.org or write to:
West Virginia United to Protect Social Security
501 Leon Sullivan Way, 3 rd Floor
Charleston, WV 25301
TAKE ACTION!
Tell Rep. Capito to Keep the Promise
As of this summer, the only West Virginia member of Congress that hasn’t said no Bush’s proposed private accounts is 2 nd Congressional District Representative Shelley Moore Capito. Send her an email telling her to Keep the Promise of Social Security! Feel free to copy, paste – and modify – the sample letter included below in any email or word processing program. You can also use this information to phone Rep. Capito.
Click here to find out how to contact Congresswomen Captio.
Dear __________:
For the last 70 years Americans have spent their working years knowing that we are paying for a guaranteed insurance and retirement program called Social Security. I am one of those Americans. President Bush's proposal to privatize Social Security, cut benefits, and increase the national debt is threatening that security and I urge you to vote against his proposals.
Today, 47 million Americans, including over 400,000 right here in West Virginia, receive Social Security benefits every month. Social Security is the most effective government program in our nation, one that also keeps millions of Americans out of poverty. We should strengthen this public program and not break our promise by privatizing Social Security.
Though Social Security faces some challenges, it does not face a crisis. It is Bush's privatization scheme that will create a crises by cutting benefits, gambling what benefits remain on the stock market, and leave a mountain of debt for future generations.
I urge you to keep the promise of Social Security by taking the small, common sense measures necessary to keep Social Security healthy without benefit cuts, risky private accounts or borrowing. Please let me know your views on this important issue.
Sincerely,
[Your name, address, phone, etc.]
Social Security Facts
Mark Twain once said that a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth even gets its shoes on, and folks it's hard to find a more compelling example than the lie about Social Security’s impending “crisis” or “bankruptcy.” Other lies include claims that the trust fund contains “worthless IOUs,” “ baby boomers” aren’t going to have enough workers to pay for them, or “private retirement accounts” benefit the general population. Here are a couple of FACTS:
- According to a study by the Social Security trustees, the system is solvent until 2042. A General Accounting Office study extends that solvency to the year 2052. A problem that might occur 40-50yrs from now is hardly a crisis.
- While it is true there’s no ‘actual’ money in the trust fund, the same could be said of the money in your local bank account. That’s because when you open a bank account, the bank lends your money out. Hence banks and other financial firms, and in this case the U.S. Treasury, don’t leave money lying around – they use it based on an implicit promise to repay you.
- It’s true that the number of working people is going to be less relative to the number of elderly people, but this is a strictly meaningless statistic. As Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) points out, “most of the baby boomers will be dead” by 2042. The fact is the "boomers" were taken care of by 1983 payroll tax increase.
- The president’s privatization plan does nothing to address Social Securities long-term solvency and is being used as a device to destroy the program from within and put workers at the mercy of the stock market, which is hardly a means of gaining security –as Enron employees know very well. It’s no coincidence then that the biggest backers of privatization – the Wall Street investment firms who’ve funneled millions into this campaign – have the least to lose and the most to gain. According to Univ of Chicago Economist Austan Goolsbee, it would be “the largest windfall gain in American financial history.” While Wall Street could rake in “$940 billion in investment fees over the next 75yrs,” the average West Virginia worker under Bush’s latest proposal would see “a benefit cut of $111,874.”
For talking points visit the
Center for American Progress or click on the sources below for more information.
Sources
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