Report from The Century Foundation on Social Security.
The year 2005 turned out to be one of the best ever for Social Security. The debate launched by President Bush’s proposal to partially privatize the system ultimately helped to demonstrate how strong public support remains for the nation’s most successful program. Polls showed that as Americans learned more about the impact of diverting Social Security payroll taxes into private accounts, they increasingly understood that the idea would make the system’s finances worse, not better. Read it here.
Social Security Privatization "Model" a Failure
Last spring President Bush declared that the privatization of pensions in Chile was a "great example" for Social Security reform in the United States, a questionable assertion given the current state of Chile's 25-year-old privatized system.The crude reality facing most Chilean workers today is that they have very little money saved in their accounts while administrative costs to manage funds, paid to AFPs, eat up between one-quarter and one-third of workers' contributions. Consequently, the AFPs have become the single most profitable Chilean industry. Another disturbing trend is that younger workers are not participating in the private pension plans. More facts about privatization here.
Poll Finds Senior Discontent Growing
December 21, 2005 - Disillusioned with President Bush's botched effort to privatize Social Security and an utterly confusing Medicare drug benefit, senior sentiments are churning a perfect storm for Republicans in Congress with huge implications for the 2006 elections. A whopping 65% of seniors disapprove of the performance of Congress, revealed in a new Wall Street Journal/NBC survey. What rings serious alarm bells for the GOP is that older voters traditionally turn out at higher rates than any other group during mid-term elections. When asked which party older Americans want to see win control of Capitol Hill, 47% say Democrats compared to 37% for Republicans. The recent rash of corporations breaking its pension promises is also having a strong impact on senior voters: 75% find the cutbacks wrong and a violation of the employees' trust, according to the WSJ/NBC poll. The WSJ/NBC poll also found 58% of seniors disapprove of the president's handling of the economy.
Alliance Delegates' Anti-Privatization Demands at Aging Conference Win Approval
December 16, 2005 - If President Bush is feeling a little bit like Rodney "I get no respect" Dangerfield, he has the 50+ Alliance member-delegates to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging to thank. The Alliance delegates arrived in Washington, DC last weekend primed for confrontation and rebellion - and that's just what the conference and the president got. Angered that this decade's gathering purposely omitted the opportunity for delegates to discuss resolutions not on the pre-approved agenda, even if favored by at least 10% of the attendees, and frustrated that the conference's Medicare resolution lacked substance, the Alliance delegates devised and circulated a "10% Rule" and "Fix Medicare Rx" petitions. Spurred by the widely worn "10%" stickers, nearly a quarter of the 1,200 delegates signed the "10% Rule" petition, which was presented to conference organizers at the opening plenary session.
Things got a lot more contentious on Tuesday, however, when Alliance member-delegates at the "Principles to Strengthen Social Security" implementation strategy session argued to let delegates vote on whether or not they support or oppose private accounts. Alliance delegates worked the session, lobbied other conference delegates, and the anti-privatization proposal won by a wide margin.
Advocacy voices were also heard loud and clear at the Medicare workshop designed to explore ways to improve Medicare. Delegates voted to have all 12 points highlighted in the Alliance's "Fix Medicare Rx" petition as one of the top implementation strategies. Those at the Medicare session also gave top vote to the implementation strategy calling for the provision of comprehensive drug coverage under Medicare and the ability of the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices
"The two hallmarks of the Bush administrations: Social Security privatization and the confusing Medicare Part D were flatly rejected," said Alliance President George Kourpias. "Despite a highly scripted agenda designed to promote the president's goals, our delegates successfully forced attentions on the Alliance's top priorities: strengthening Social Security and providing affordable and accessible drug benefit under Medicare. Those Alliance delegates who so selflessly gave of their time to stand up and fight for those issues so important to the welfare and well-being of America's seniors deserve a huge thanks."
Language crafted by the Alliance also appeared in a number of other implementation strategies such as housing, transportation and Medicaid. The WHCoA Policy Committee is to submit in 100 days a report on the conference to the governors and then have six months to submit a final report to Congress. Visit the Alliance For Retired Americans (ARA) here.
2005 White House Conference on Aging a ‘White Wash’
December 14, 2005 - A contingent of activist delegates to the White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA), held December 11-14 in Washington, DC, are angry and frustrated no opportunity exists for open debate about issues they believe should be discussed but are not included on the conference’s agenda. At issue for the Alliance’s 50 delegates is the 2005 WHCoA’s refusal to allow any non-agenda resolutions to be publicly discussed and debated, even if 10% of the delegates favor such action. Called the 10% Rule, the opportunity to deliberate non-agenda issues was adopted at both the 1981 and 1995 White House Conferences on Aging. The Alliance delegates intend to distribute a petition demanding that the 10% Rule be adopted.
“We may live in a democracy, but this is the anti-democracy administration,” said George J. Kourpias, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, who also noted that President Bush does not intend to address the delegates. “You’d think the president who envisioned the Medicare drug benefit to be the center of his compassionate conservatism, or made privatizing Social Security the pillar of his domestic agenda, would care to hear from real seniors about real issues of concern.”
In addition to petitioning for the 10% Rule, Alliance delegates intend to urge the following: that any efforts alter the fundamental structure of Social Security be rejected; that the Medicare drug benefit be amended so that affordable and accessible drugs be available to all seniors; the enrollment period for the new Medicare Part D be extended without penalty to December 31, 2006; that the vital programs like Meals on Wheels have funding to meet the needs of a growing senior population; and that pension funds live up to their obligations to provide for retirees.
Protect You Pension Now!
Can you afford to have your pension credits frozen?
A pension bill (H.R. 2830) crafted by House Republican leaders and the Bush administration is moving forward. This dangerous legislation could force GM, Ford, DCX and other companies to freeze all pension credits and/or prohibit benefit improvements.
If pension credits are frozen, workers would not be able to earn more credits. For example, a worker with 15 or 29 years of service would be frozen at that amount of service, no matter how much longer he or she worked and would never qualify for a 30-and-out pension.
If benefit improvements are prohibited, this means your union could not even negotiate to update benefit levels to keep pace with inflation.
It would also outlaw special early retirement benefits that are triggered when there is a plant closing.
While House Republican leaders are attacking the pensions of rank-and-file workers and retirees, they have not done anything to the lucrative pensions earned by Members of Congress. Members of Congress would continue to have their pension credits and benefits increased automatically every year despite the huge federal deficit.
Call your Representative 1-888-355-3588
Tell them to vote against pension bill H.R. 2830 that would freeze pension credits and benefits and eliminate plant closing benefits for American autoworkers and other industrial workers. It's wrong for Congress to freeze pension credits for rank-and-file workers while lucrative pensions for Members of Congress are continuing to increase automatically every year!
Read more below:
AFL-CIO Issues Action Alert On Pension Protection Act
Read the letter to the House Ways And Means Committee here.
http://www.aflcio.org/issues/legislativealert/alerts/upload/PensionProtectionAct.pdf
GOP Conflicted Over Social Security Privatization
GOP plans to overhaul Social Security have taken a back seat to more pressing matters, but Republicans are increasingly skittish—and conflicted—about how to move forward with President Bush’s signature domestic priority. According to reports from Roll Call, the head of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee has recommended that the GOP indefinitely shelve plans to privatize Social Security citing public dissatisfaction and its affect on the 2006 mid-term elections. Seniors are overwhelmingly opposed to private accounts and tend to vote in larger numbers, particularly in off-year elections.
House Republican leaders are still looking to pass legislation that would use the Social Security surplus to fund private accounts. The Growing Real Ownership for Workers (GROW) Act (H.R. 3304), introduced by Rep. Jim McCrery (R-LA), claims to stop the raid on the surplus but is nothing more than a first step in privatizing the 70-year-old social insurance program. The Alliance strongly opposes H.R. 3304 because it will not provide guaranteed security for future retirees and does nothing to ensure the program’s future solvency. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the proposal would increase the deficit by $1 trillion by 2021.
In the near term, the Senate is unlikely to move forward on Social Security. Senate Republicans have been unable to agree on a proposal while Supreme Court nominations and the ongoing reconstruction efforts in the Gulf Coast are higher priorities. However, House Ways and Means Chair Bill Thomas (R-CA) said this week that he was “optimistic” about action on Social Security this year. Rep. Thomas is working on a broad retirement security bill that may include the GROW Act along with other measures affecting 401(k) plans and pensions.
From "Friday Alert" published by the Alliance for Retired Americans
Katrina Rebuilding Puts Social Security Reform on Hold
Before Katrina swept through the Gulf Coast, GOP leaders in Congress hoped to push through the President’s plans to privatize Social Security and eliminate the estate tax that applies to the wealthiest one percent of American families.
With cost estimates for Hurricane Katrina rising daily, Congress is moving away from Social Security for now. Katrina, however, may just be the graceful exit the President has been searching from his Social Security privatization plan in the face of plummeting public support and tepid endorsements from his GOP allies in Congress.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan hinted at the defeat at a news conference. "Katrina is our highest priority and helping those in the region," McClellan said. "There are other priorities as well and we'll continue to work with Congress on the timetable (but) Congress is the one that sets the schedule."
Meanwhile in Congress, Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., a member of the Senate Finance Committee that oversees Social Security reform, told the Washington Times that they may "eventually deal with" Social Security's solvency, but added "It's off the radar" for now.
President Bush Explains His Social Security Plan
President Bush has made a string of public appearances to promote his plan to privatize Social Security. But after months on the road and dozens of appearances, public support is less than when he started. One reason could be his explanations. At the Tampa Convention Center in Florida, the President responded to an audience member’s question about the $600 billion in transition costs to private accounts (from the official transcript released by the White House):
Q. … how is it the new plan is going to fix that problem?
THE PRESIDENT: Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.
Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.
Okay, better? I'll keep working on it. (Laughter.)
Social Security Celebrates 70 Years of Service
August 14, 2005 - marked the Social Security’s 70th anniversary, one of the most successful programs in U.S. history. At the signing ceremony in 1935, the United States was in the depths of the great Depression with record 20% unemployment rate and record poverty. “The civilization of the past 100 years, with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insecure,” said President Franklin Roosevelt. “Young people have come to wonder what would be their lot in life when they came to old age. The man with a job has wondered how long the job would last. We can never insure 100 percent of the population against 100 percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against a poverty-ridden old age.”
Social Security has lived up to that promise and more. Today, nine out of 10 Americans 65 and older receive Social Security benefits and about two thirds of then get more than fifty percent of their income from the program, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Without Social Security, almost half Americans over 65 would have incomes below the poverty line.
And Social Security isn’t just a retirement program. Of 48 million beneficiaries, 8.2 million get disability benefits and 6.6 million get survivor’s benefits. The odds are that three in 10 of today’s 20 year olds will become disabled before they reach age 67. Social Security’s survivor benefit has kept children out of poverty and families together if the family breadwinner should die prematurely. And after seventy years, Social Security provides all these benefits at just 0.6 percent of benefits paid, just a fraction of the projected administrative costs of private accounts.
Click here to see a video of Franklin Roosevelt signing Social Security into law.
Social Security Administration Snubs 70th Anniversary Celebration
August 9, 2005 - The Social Security Administration decided to ignore Social Security’s 70th anniversary on August 14, 2005, snubbing the program’s 70-year history of providing a secure retirement for America’s seniors. Under previous administrations, the Social Security Administration used the 3rd, 25th, 33rd, 50th, 60th and 65th anniversaries of President Roosevelt’s signing of Social Security legislation as an opportunity to showcase the important services Social Security provides.
For the 60th anniversary, Social Security agencies across America held media events and produced historical exhibits to educate the public about Social Security programs. All Social Security mail went out with a special 60th anniversary postage cancellation and there were messages on the large electronic display in Times Square and on scoreboards at Yankee stadium and stadiums in Atlanta and Cincinnati.
“Ten years later you have apparently decided to ignore the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act,” said Witold Skwierczynski, President of National Council of SSA Field Operations Locals (AFGE) in a letter to JoAnne Barnhart, Commissioner of the Social Security Administration. “Why would you ignore this opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of the Agency that you administer? Why would you fail to acknowledge the 70 years of great service that SSA employees have provided to the American public? Is the goal of the Administration to dismantle Social Security by privatizing it so compelling that you are ashamed of this birthday of the Agency?”
To participate in your own event to honor 70 years of Social Security, sign up at www.americansforsocialsecurity.com.
Private Account Plans Will Explode Deficit
August 2, 2005 - GOP lawmakers are planning a push for privatizing Social Security when they return from their summer recess in September. There are several competing privatization schemes, including the President’s proposal and several plans offered by GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate. “All of the major proposals to replace a portion of Social Security with private accounts would require large increases in federal borrowing for many decades,” according to a new analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The proposals will not only add to record U.S. budget deficits, but “by themselves would not do anything to restore solvency” of the Social Security system.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, whose committee controls Social Security legislation in the Senate, predicted Congress would take up Social Security privatization during an extended Congressional session this fall.
President’s Social Security Plan Losing Steam
July 29, 2005 - After extensive road trips this Spring and a recent appearance with his mom, President Bush’s effort to dismantle Social Security is losing steam. His whistle-stop Social Security tour managed to decrease public support for private accounts and the reception in Congress isn’t much better.
GOP leaders in Congress are backing away from the President’s plan for private accounts. A new proposal, called the Growing Real Ownership for Workers Act of 2005 (H.R. 3304) was introduced by House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Jim McCreary (R-LA). Republican Senator Jim DeMint from South Carolina introduced a similar proposal in the Senate. The plans call for using the current surplus in the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for a smaller version of private accounts.
The proposals mask some serious economic flaws, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Both assume large transfers of general revenues from the federal budget, more than $600 billion in the House version. Other creative accounting gimmicks, such as off the books Treasury bonds, make Social Security look solvent but actually make federal budget problems worse. “Their design, structure and costs make little sense from a policy standpoint,” the study concludes. And “they achieve solvency on paper with making any improvements in the long-term fiscal situation.”
GOP lawmakers had planned to have overhaul legislation by this summer, but now concede little will be done until the Fall at the earliest.
