S4 just sent a letter to the AARP leadership expressing our disappointment that they seem to be blocking any avenue for reforming Social Security. We know that any legitimate Social Security reform plan must involve all generations in the solution, and as the prime representative of seniors, AARP has a leading role to play.
Though, to get a reform bill, one must be willing to come to the table and compromise. So far, AARP has not been willing to do that.
We sincerely want to move forward with Social Security reform, for the sake of our generation and those to come.
Therefore, we have written to the AARP leadership to request a meeting for one purpose -- Let's find common ground and a solution together.
You can read our letter here:
http://www.secureourfuture.org/referencefiles/S4-Novelli.pdf Posted by Jeremy Tunnell| Comments (0)
We just came across this great Social Security video on YouTube.
Check it out...
Disclaimer: S4 takes no position on the content, we just thought it was interesting. Posted by Jeremy Tunnell| Comments (0)
Be on the look out for S4 during your lunch break! This summer in Washington, DC S4 staff can be spotted during their lunch hour signing up new members.
Why?
It's part of S4's new initiative to have over 5,000 members before school starts back again. S4's staff plan to attend intern events, visit high traveled DC attractions like the National Archives and frequent Happy Hour hot spots (whatever it takes) in order to sign up new members.
Want to join in the fun? You can participate by emailing S4 at staff@secureourfuture.org. Posted by Jo Jensen| Comments (0)
On Tuesday, June 20, 2006 seniors with Americans United rallied together to protest the statement Congressman Jim McCrery said the previous week.
Americans United communication director Alex Morgan stated:
The federal government is trying to put their hands in people's pockets, Congress is just out of step with what the American people want.
In fact, Americans United are the ones who are out of step with the
American people. Representative McCrery did not make a call for
personal accounts, nor a call for any particular plan. Rep. McCrery
simply said we need to address this critical issue before it's too late.
Protesting against a member of Congress for calling attention to a
national fiscal crisis is not an activity that serves the best
interests of the American people.
Seniors reaffirm their fight against Social Security privatization Posted by Andrew Edwards| Comments (0)
Yesterday, all of the S4 staff attended an event at the American Enterprise Institute (Video Here). Its aim was to put together a starting point for reform.
Here's the idea: Lock three people in a room -- A former Clinton White House advisor, a member of President Bush's reform commission, and an advisor to Senator John McCain and tell them they can't come out until they have a compromise they could all live with.
What they came out with was a great start for reform proposals. Here's the plan in a nutshell (Full Proposal Here, Detailed summary at CNN Money):
Raise the worker's half of payroll taxes from 6.2 to 7.7 percent.
Raise the cap of wages subject to tax from 83 to 90 percent of wages.
Raise the retirement age to 68 and the early retirement age to 65.
Create Personal Retirement accounts of 1.5% (carve out) and 1.5% (add on).
Cut future benefits progressively with higher earners taking the greatest reduction.
We at S4 certainly hope this encourages lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to put forward their reform plans. It's important that we fix this problem soon because as we approach 2017, we have fewer options for reform: we can no longer prefund the system and we can't adjust benefits of those already in retirement, which leaves us with the only option of ratcheting up taxes.
Hopefully, this gesture shows that the gap between the two parties on Social Security reform is not unbridgeable, and we really can work together to fix this problem. Posted by Jeremy Tunnell| Comments (1)
A tsunami of entitlement spending is threatening our economy, while providing no real security to retirees. We have made promises that we cannot keep. Under moderately optimistic scenarios Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will in the decades to come grow as large as the entire government is today. Someday the government will be forced to make drastic cuts in these programs, or crippling increases in taxes on workers – or both. The longer we wait to make the hard choices necessary to repair these programs, the harder the problem becomes. My children and their children will not receive the benefits we will enjoy. That is an inescapable fact, and any politician who tells you otherwise, Democrat or Republican, is lying.
It is hardly statesmanship to ignore the obvious imperative of reducing the growth of spending for retiree income support, health care, and long-term care. And yet, year after year, our government fails to act. This failure has a real and distressing cost. Our workers make their retirement plans based on promised benefits that cannot be paid even if we burden our children with crippling taxes. If we fix the system now, people will have time to plan accordingly, to ensure that they still have a comfortable retirement. If we wait, we make the problem worse and, in effect, lie to Americans who we encouraged to put their trust in a broken system.
I have long supported supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts – but not as a substitute for addressing benefit promises that cannot be kept. People of good faith in both parties agree that we must make the hard decisions to restore solvency to these programs and that personal accounts can ease the impact of slower benefit growth. But, too often, we prefer to nurture our own ambitions rather than defend the public interest. It is long past time for our two parties to sit down together and fix our pressing entitlement problems. And while it is a smaller problem than health care, we should start with Social Security because the fix is obvious in comparison, and much simpler. (emphasis added)
Is this a sign of what we can expect from his campaign coming up to 2008? Will he push for Social Security reform even sooner?
We don't know, but this is certainly encouraging coming from someone who is widely known as the Republican frontrunner for President in 2008. Posted by Jeremy Tunnell| Comments (0)
We just got the video edited and posted from our Johnson City, TN event with 6 Congressional candidates.
Check it out! A three minute excerpt is below, and the full video is at the bottom.
Link to the full video Posted by Jeremy Tunnell| Comments (0)
According to the Palm Beach Post Democratic Congressional candidate Joe Klein will "soon offer a Social Security plan of his own".
I applaud Mr. Klein for having the courage to step up and address the issue. We're not going to move this issue forward until people put their cards on the table, and that means writing their own bills.
So what does his proposal look like? As of today, he hasn't released anything, but we can throw out a guess based on the last line of the news article:
While Klein has not proposed his own Social Security plan, he has said he opposes privatization, any benefit cuts or any plan that adds to the national debt.
Since the only three options for fixing Social Security are raise taxes, adjust benefits, or change the structure of the system, we can only assume that the bulk of his plan restores solvency by raising taxes.
We're certainly looking forward to reading his bill... Posted by Jeremy Tunnell| Comments (0)
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid commented on the remarks made by Rep. Jim McCrery on making Social Security reform top priority in 2007.
Pelosi said:
When House Republican point man on Social Security says that privatizing Social Security will be a top priority next year, it is clear the Republicans once again are not listening to the American people, who resoundingly rejected this risky scheme last year.
This is not true. Jim McCrery and other Republicans on the Hill are listening to the voices of America. There are people out here wanting reform.
Reid remarked:
They're still trying to push the country in the wrong direction with this misguided approach. Democrats stand side by side with America's seniors in opposing the deep benefit cuts and massive new debt that the GOP's privatization scheme would require.
What Reid is saying is that they only care about the seniors of today, not the seniors of the future. They are not listening to today's youth who are going to be greatly affected by social security. If the system is not corrected soon, the seniors of the future will not have social security.
Link to CNS News Article Posted by Andrew Edwards| Comments (0)
This past Thursday, June 8, S4 held a Social Security "Town Hall" event in Johnson City. We were delighted to have six candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives with us to discuss the future of Social Security Reform.
There was a consensus among the candidates that the current social security system is unsustainable and unfair. "It's robbing from our young folks today", candidate David Davis said, and every candidate thought that we should fix Social Security in the next congress. Dan Smith, one of the candidates, had this to say about the right time for reform:
We have got to save Social Security for our kids. . . It ought to be on the agenda this year, and it ought to be on the agenda next year until it gets done.
While all of the candidates supported Social Security Reform, there were some interesting twists on the concept. Phil Roe, a candidate from Johnson City, wants to give every American a $2,000 account at birth that would grow over a lifetime. This is an interesting idea: Using the power of compounding interest to save for retirement through childhood. Posted by Jeremy Tunnell| Comments (0)
