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August 11th, 2005Come out and see us tomorrow!
August 11th 01:53:19 PM
Friday at 9:30am will be participating in a Social Secirty roundtable with Jim Martin, president of 60 plus, James Lockhart, Deputy Commissioner of Social Security, and Donald Lambro, Washington Times.
We will be represented by our very own Ursula Williams. If you're in the Washington area tomorrow stop by and see us!
Click on the title to see the full post with the press release.
Students for Saving Social Security Media Advisory:
Students for Saving Social Security shares stage with the 60-Plus Association to highlight intra-generational support Personal Retirement Accounts
When:
9:30 AM, Friday, August 12
Where:
The National Press Club
First Amendment Lounge, 13th Floor
529 14th St. NW
Washington, DC 20045
What:
Students for Saving Social Security (www.secureourfuture.org), a non-partisan student group with over 200 chapters in more than 40 states nationwide, teamed up with the 60-Plus Association to highlight the collaborative support, of both retired and younger Americans, for personal accounts.
Who:
Ursula Williams, Students for Saving Social Security
Jim Martin, president of 60 plus
James Lockhart, Deputy Commissioner of Social Security
Donald Lambro, Washington Times
Posted by Jeremy Tunnell| Comments (0)
Well, S4 attended the AARP rally today...
August 11th 01:32:51 PM
Jonathan, Ursula, and I, along with a few of the Freedomworks guys went to the AARP rally today.
Well for one thing, either somebody told us the wrong time or the rally ended early because we arrived just as everyone was leaving. We did get to talk to a couple of their people. I talked with Brewster Thackeray, who was a nice guy all around, and Jonathan talked with their legislative director (can't remember the name).
We also talked with some press, so maybe we'll get a mention.
We'll see... (click the title to see the press release.)
Washington D.C. – Students for Saving Social Security (www.secureourfuture.org), a non-partisan student group with over 200 chapters in more than 40 states nationwide was present at AARP’s rally today.
Several members of the student group held up signs and talked with AARP members about the need for reform through ownership.
“Today, AARP celebrates a system that has departed drastically from its original intent” said Jonathan Swanson, co-founder of S4 and a senior at Yale University. “Social Security was a crucial policy breakthrough in the 1930’s, but was intended as only one leg of a 3-legged stool of retirement. America has changed a lot in the last seventy years and Social Security should evolve to reflect that. We have to do our best to educate members of the public especially AARP about the real issues behind Social Security.”
Swanson added, “First, no one’s benefits will be cut under any reform plan. Reform is about choice; giving people the opportunity to secure a better future.”
Ursula Williams, Deputy Director of S4 and a recent graduate of Biola University, said, “The real party is tomorrow, where we’ll be joining with the 60+ Association to celebrate both the past success of Social Security, and looking toward the future. It will be a gathering of generations coming together to move Social Security forward into the 21st century.”
Williams concluded, “AARPs own mission reads ‘AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50+ have independence, CHOICE and CONTROL in ways that are beneficial and affordable to them and society as a whole.’ That’s what the Social Security debate is all about, and we would love for AARP to join Students for Saving Social Security in increasing choice and control for all generations."
Posted by Jeremy Tunnell| Comments (0)
August 10th, 2005We'll be waiting for you in September
August 10th 12:26:36 PM
We are up and coming, diverse, and demanding. While marketing researchers throw their hands up trying to figure out what we want, Generation Y throws its hands up at the Killers concert. Congress can’t figure out how to reach our voter base and we can’t figure out why C-span only uses two cameras. There’s a gap, and it’s certainly generational.
The fact that our generation is smaller than the ones that came before has severely thrown off the logistics of our Social Security system. It is becoming frustratingly clear that Social Security is headed towards a fiscal ditch. Congress would rather ignore the ditch and fill it in at the last minute with tremendous amounts of our dollars. Younger workers want to go around the ditch, or put a plank over it.
All analogies aside, America’s youth are speaking up with a bipartisan voice in hopes of a bicameral reaction. There is a clear majority, sixty-six percent in fact, of young workers who see the pay-as-you-go system failing for them in the future, and see Personal Retirement Accounts as the proper adjustment. Though it is essential that the facts and figures add up; that current benefactors and soon to be benefactors are not slighted, it is just as important that our principles are not forgotten. It may seem counter-intuitive that college kids be concerned with principles; but there are a few we can’t let go. Namely, these are universality, opportunity and choice. The youth of America has a message for Congress as it prepares to take a break from the heat and humidity of our nation’s capital, and, along with it, a respite from the equally steamy debate over Social Security reform: we will not forget, and we will be waiting when you return in September.
A surprising number of the youngest generation of American The youngest generation of American workers has been listening – believe it or not – with rapt attention these past few months to the debate over integrating Personal Retirement Accounts into the current Social Security system – which 66% of us support. While the rest of Washington seems to have forgotten what this debate is truly about, we have not.
We have not forgotten that this debate is not about privatization or personalization or whatever jargon the politicians are using these days, because it is not a debate about rhetoric. It is not about transition costs or benefit cuts or tax increases, because it is not a debate about numbers. It is not about which Senator from which party puts forward a proposal, because Tit is most certainly not a his debate is most certainly not about partisan politics or who gets the credit (though you could have fooled us).
These Yyoung workers have not forgotten that this debate is really about principles, principles that are intrinsically American: universality, opportunity, and choice.. We believe in uUniversal access to instruments of wealth creation;, the opportunity to pass on an inheritance to our children,; andbut most importantly, the ability to choose whether we want either of those.
Also, contrary to popular impression, twenty-somethings remember our history.
We have not forgotten that America itself was founded born out of our founder ancestors’ sincere need to choose their own way. Back then, it was about religious freedom, but Americans’ intrinsic desire to make decisions has not disappeared. Need proof? Just walk down the breakfast cereal aisle of your local supermarket.
Young Americans enraptured by the Social Security debate have not forgotten the visions of Social Security’s founder, who embraced these very principles. When President Roosevelt created the Social Security system in 1935, he he acknowledged the importance of ensureding that all Americans had a claim to the Social Security system, that everyone had “a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions.” Embracing the true spirit of Roosevelt’s Social Security system, Personal Retirement Accounts restore Social Security’s original intent while simultaneously modernizing it to adapt to today’s economy.
Another leadership entity that made promises in our not so distant pastWe have not forgotten these visions of the past, and we certainly will not forget the promises of the present, . the Democratic Leadership Council, addressed the problems facing the Social Security system iIn its 2000 Hyde Park Declaration, the Democratic Leadership Council addressed the problems facing the Social Security system. The Council asserted that Social Security should be “modernized to reflect conditions not envisioned when [it] was created in the 1930s.” Furthermore, it identified several goals that the Party should achieve by 2010: that “structural reforms” to the Social Security system should be undertaken to “slow [its] future cost growth,” that “beneficiaries should be given more choice and control over their retirement,” and that “Retirement Savings Accounts” should be created.
Though Tthe Hyde Park Declaration may have taken was made place five years ago, but we have not forgotten the promises made its vision.Be proud that State Controller Kathleen Connell, Representative Calvin Dooley, San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales, and Representative Ellen O. Tauscher Senator Your Senator or Congressman heres stood up and like John Kerry, Blanche Lincoln, and Joe Lieberman signed thise statement of principles. This that was to guide the partytheir party for the next ten years, and today they are facing the fork in the road they had planned for. . Half way through this first decade of the 21st century, they have an opportunity to fulfill their promise. We also have not forgotten the old adage “It is amazing how much can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit.” Democratic Leadership Council, your moment is nownow is your chance. Waiting until the last minute is not in the declaration, but Personal Accounts are.
America’s young workers also recognize that changing the status quo is difficult. Personal Retirement Accounts seemare revolutionary because they change the philosophy behind the welfare state by, restructuring adjusting the system from paying in the present a pay-as-you-go-system to one that planning plans forfor the future – no small task. However, the integrationIntegrating of asset ownership into the welfare state is principled, planed for, preferred and long overdue. .; Iit is the next step in the evolution of our economic policy, reflective of the principles on which the Social Security system was founded and of the economic progress the United States has made since. Just as we need to consider alternative energy to oil, we need to consider alternative sources for Social Security.
So there you have it. We have principles, and we remember promises. Some of the enigma of Generation Y has been answered, as has any question about how we’ll be voting. Congressmen and Senators, campaign appropriately and marketers, we want more free unlimited minutes. We have not forgotten what this debate is really about because we cannot afford to; it is the youngest generation of workers that will be most affected by the decisions made by politicians today. Like those who came before us, we want choice.
Congressmen, Senators: enjoy the recess. We’ll be waiting for you in September.
Posted by Jonathan Swanson| Comments (0)
August 09th, 2005ladies, what's up?
August 09th 12:06:00 PM
what are your thoughts, questions, & concerns re social security?
personal accounts will be incredibly beneficial to all kinds of women in all kinds of ways, but if you're having any questions, lay 'em out, and we'll do what girls do best - talk!
Posted by Ursula Williams| Comments (0)
August 04th, 2005They said it....
August 04th 12:49:17 PM
Howard Dean last Friday: “"We are Democrats because we have moral values, we think it's a moral value to stop stealing money out of the Social Security trust fund."
John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln and others in 2000: “[a]n ever-growing share of the federal budget today consists of automatic transfers from working Americans to retirees. Moreover, the costs of the big entitlements for the elderly -- Social Security and Medicare -- are growing at rates that will eventually bankrupt them”.
“We can’t just spend our way out of the problem.”
Democrats should “create Retirement Savings Accounts to enable low-income Americans to save for their own retirement.”
The New Progressive Manifesto in 1999: “We must gradually convert Social Security from a transfer program to a new system of individual private savings…”
1998 Joe Lieberman to the Copley News Service: “A remarkable wave of innovative thinking is advancing the concept of privatization… individual control of part of the retirement/Social Security funds has to happen…. We have a chance not only to do something right, but to give people more confidence about what their retirement years will be like…individual control of part of the retirement/Social Security funds has to happen.”
Paul Krugman in 1996: "I like [Richard] Freeman’s idea of providing each individual with a trust fund when young rather than retirement benefits when old, but we had better realize that this is a significant change in the character of the social insurance system … Well, the Ponzi game will soon be over, thanks to changing demographics, so that the typical recipient henceforth will get only about as much as he or she put in (and today’s young may well get less than they put in)"
Former Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey: “liberals are wrong to fear that President Bush’s proposal represents a threat to Social Security…might even argue that accounts be opened at birth.”
The late Democratic Senator Patrick Moynihan: Persona Retirement Accounts would build estates “for doormen, as well as those living in the duplexes above.”
And even Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself said that Social Security should eventually be “supplanted by self-supported annuity plans.”
Posted by Jonathan Swanson| Comments (2)
August 03rd, 2005Kerry, then and now
August 03rd 12:58:18 PM
From the Hyde Park Declaration in 2000:
“[a]n ever-growing share of the federal budget today consists of automatic transfers from working Americans to retirees. Moreover, the costs of the big entitlements for the elderly -- Social Security and Medicare -- are growing at rates that will eventually bankrupt them”.
“We can’t just spend our way out of the problem.”
Democrats should “create Retirement Savings Accounts to enable low-income Americans to save for their own retirement.”
John Kerry in 2005:
“Not me. Not my party. Not ever.”
Flip. Flop…. Flip. Flop.
Posted by Jonathan Swanson| Comments (0)
Thank you Democrat leaders
August 03rd 12:55:42 PM
congratulations and thank you to democrat leaders who showed amazing insight, direction, and compassion by advocating personal accounts way back in 2000.
the hyde park declaration, signed aug. 1, 2000, by senators kerry, landrieu, bayh, and lieberman (which also includes the pledges from over 70 other democrat legislators), proposes the implementation of "RETIREMENT SAVINGS ACCOUNTS to enable low-income americans to save for their own retirement"
and
"shifting the focus of america's antipoverty and social insurance programs from transferring wealth to creating wealth."
s4 agrees entirely with these progressive, discerning, and courageous mavericks within the democrat party. to celebrate the fifth year anniversary of the democrat leadership council’s hyde park declaration -- a "statement of principles and a policy agenda for the 21st century", all signatories should continue, as PRESIDENT CLINTON encouraged them to, "meet the challenge of an aging america by extending the life of social security ... and helping working families to establish their own RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS so that more americans have a chance to create wealth."
thank you president clinton, and progressive democrats, for advocating young America’s retirement security through personal accounts. let's keep that forward-looking spirit alive, remindful of the clinton campaign song;
"...don’t stop, thinking about tomorrow,
don't stop, it'll soon be here,
it'll be, better than before,
yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone..."
Posted by Ursula Williams| Comments (0)
August 01st, 2005Remembering the Hyde Park Declaration
August 01st 01:47:47 PM
The youth of America has a message for Congress as it prepares to take a break from the heat and humidity of our nation’s capital, and, along with it, a respite from the equally steamy debate over Social Security reform: we will not forget, and we will be waiting when you return in September.
A surprising number of the youngest generation of American The youngest generation of American workers has been listening – believe it or not – with rapt attention these past few months to the debate over integrating Retirement Accounts into the current Social Security system – which 66% of us support. While the rest of Washington seems to have forgotten what this debate is truly about, we have not.
We have not forgotten that this debate is not about privatization or personalization or whatever jargon the politicians are using these days, because it is not a debate about rhetoric. It is not about transition costs or benefit cuts or tax increases, because it is not a debate about numbers. It is not about which Senator from which party puts forward a proposal, because Tit is most certainly not a his debate is most certainly not about partisan politics or who gets the credit (though you could have fooled us).
These Young workers have not forgotten that this debate is really about principles, principles that are intrinsically American: universality, opportunity, and choice.. We believe in uUniversal access to instruments of wealth creation;, the opportunity to pass on an inheritance to our children,; andbut most importantly, the ability to choose whether we want either of those.
We have not forgotten that America itself was founded born out our ancestors’ sincere need to choose their own way. Back then, it was about religious freedom, but Americans’ intrinsic desire to make decisions has not disappeared. Need proof? Just walk down the breakfast cereal aisle of your local supermarket.
Young Americans enraptured by the Social Security debate have not forgotten the visions of Social Security’s founder, who embraced these very principles. When President Roosevelt created the Social Security system in 1935, he acknowledged the importance of ensuring that all Americans had a claim to the Social Security system, that everyone had “a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions.” Embracing the true spirit of Roosevelt’s Social Security system, Personal Retirement Accounts restore Social Security’s original intent while simultaneously modernizing it to adapt to today’s economy.
We have not forgotten these visions of the past, and we certainly will not forget the promises of the present. In its 2000 Hyde Park Declaration, the Democratic Leadership Council addressed the problems facing the Social Security system. The Council asserted that Social Security should be “modernized to reflect conditions not envisioned when [it] was created in the 1930s.” Furthermore, it identified several goals that the Party should achieve by 2010: that “structural reforms” to the Social Security system should be undertaken to “slow [its] future cost growth,” that “beneficiaries should be given more choice and control over their retirement,” and that “Retirement Savings Accounts” should be created.
Though Tthe Hyde Park Declaration may have taken was made place five years ago, but we have not forgotten the promises made its vision. Senators like John Kerry, Blanche Lincoln, and Joe Lieberman signed the statement of principles that was to guide the party for the next ten years. Half way through this first decade of the 21st century, they have an opportunity to fulfill their promise. We also have not forgotten the old adage “It is amazing how much can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit.” Democratic Leadership Council, your moment is nownow is your chance.
America’s young workers also recognize that changing the status quo is difficult. Personal Retirement Accounts seemare revolutionary because they change the philosophy behind the welfare state by, restructuring adjusting the system from paying in the present a pay-as-you-go-system to one that planning plans forfor the future – no small task. However, the integration of asset ownership into the welfare state is long overdue.; Iit is the next step in the evolution of our economic policy, reflective of the principles on which the Social Security system was founded and of the economic progress the United States has made since.
We have not forgotten what this debate is really about because we cannot afford to; it is the youngest generation of workers that will be most affected by the decisions made by politicians today. Like those who came before us, we want choice.
Congressmen, Senators: enjoy the recess. We’ll be waiting for you in September.
Posted by Jeremy Tunnell| Comments (0)
Howard Dean support GROW accounts?
August 01st 01:42:55 PM
From the speech he gave to college Democrats Friday night:
"We are Democrats because we have moral values, we think it's a moral value to stop stealing money out of the Social Security trust fund."
Here’s hoping Dean is a man of his word and will urge the Democrats in Congress to create personal accounts to protect all Americans from the Congressional raiding of Social Security.
Posted by Jeremy Tunnell| Comments (0)
Kerry, Lieberman used to favor Personal Retirement Accounts
August 01st 12:59:31 PM
Kerry, Lieberman used to favor Personal Retirement Accounts
August 1 marks the fifth anniversary of the Hyde Park Declaration, a document released by the Democratic Leadership Council that established "New Democratic principles and a broad national policy agenda for the next decade." At the time, several influential Senators signed it, including Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman.
The Hyde Park Declaration was a product of mainstream Democratic thinking, at a time when the Democratic Party was a party of ideas. The New Democrats prudently identified Social Security reform as an important policy issue for the first decade of the 20th Century.
Showing tremendous foresight in recognizing the importance of reform, the DLC noted that the nation was in the middle of a "great transformation." The Democratic Party’s accomplishments of the 20th century, specifically Social Security and Medicare, had to be modernized.
Now Senators Kerry and Lieberman have a chance to fulfill their promise of five years ago. Democrats of the past would have entered into the debate with serious proposals. Today too many sit on the sidelines and offer nothing at all. This is not the kind of leadership Americans are used to from the party of FDR, and it helps explain the re-emergence of the Republican Party as the party of ideas.
Democrats can continue to sit on the sidelines while the important issues of the day are discussed, or they can engage in real policy and put politics aside. There is a leadership void in Washington. A politician who can put partisanship aside could go far.
The Hyde Park Declaration is a guide for any Democrat who wishes to revisit a time when principles, and not partisan politics, reigned. It provides tangible goals, challenging Democrats to "modernize" Social Security "to reflect conditions not envisioned when [it was] created in the 1930s," because "we can’t just spend our way out of the problem." Specifically, the Declaration identifies that Democrats should "create Retirement Savings Accounts to enable low-income Americans to save for their own retirement."
The DLC and its Hyde Park Declaration flow from a strong set of principles - not political expediency. Among these principles are beliefs, "that government’s proper role...is to equip working Americans with new tools for economic success and security," that "the Democratic Party’s mission is to expand opportunity, not government," and that "government should harness the forces of choice and competition to achieve public goals." Voluntary Personal Retirement Accounts are a concrete manifestation of these lofty principles, allowing workers to shift some of their payroll taxes into the productive economy. For low-income Americans, this money is their only opportunity to save and amass a nest egg.
These are mainstream American values, values voters look for in their elected leaders. Democrats must confront their losses in the last three national elections. As they reevaluate their strategy, Democrats should remember that Bill Clinton, a President who put the policies before the politics, led them to easy victory, while current leadership is courting disaster.
There’s an opening for a true New Democratic leader. Advocating for a strengthened Social Security system that includes ownership is the easiest way to start.
Posted by Jonathan Swanson| Comments (0)
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