[Livingwage] Fwd: We can do it! 500, 000 against Social Security cuts

[Belden Fields]

>Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 12:07:23 -0800
>From: "Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org" <moveon-help at list.moveon.org>
>To: "A. Belden fields" <a-fields at uiuc.edu>
>Subject: We can do it! 500,000 against Social Security cuts
>
>More than 360,000 people have signed our petition to stop George W. Bush's 
>plan to privatize Social Security and cut benefits. But we want to get to 
>500,000 before we deliver the petition to Congress during in-person 
>meetings only ten days from now. Can you add your name?
>
><http://www.moveon.org/socialsecurity/?id=5090-526064-mAfudgrvDGt0mC93Chb1rA>
>f3a6283.jpg
>
><http://www.moveon.org/socialsecurity/?id=5090-526064-mAfudgrvDGt0mC93Chb1rA>Click 
>to sign
>
>Dear MoveOn member,
>
>Three weeks ago, we launched MoveOn's campaign to save Social Security and 
>announced a goal of 200,000 petition signers. We've blown past that goal 
>-- more than 360,000 Americans have joined the effort so far. They're 
>rejecting the Bush-led effort to privatize Social Security and cut benefits.
>
>It's a great start, but together, we can get to 500,000 signers on the 
>petition before MoveOn members deliver it to Congress in just ten days. If 
>you haven't had a chance to sign our petition, please take just one minute 
>right now to do so by clicking on the link below.
>
><http://www.moveon.org/socialsecurity/?id=5090-526064-mAfudgrvDGt0mC93Chb1rA>http://www.moveon.org/socialsecurity/
>
>After you sign, please ask your friends, family and colleagues to get 
>involved by forwarding them this e-mail. We're setting a new goal of 
>500,000 petition signers before Congress returns home in ten days when 
>we'll deliver the petitions during in-person meetings.
>
>The more signers we have, the more they'll listen to our concerns -- and 
>the less likely Bush's plan will be successful. Members of Congress know 
>that for every person who signs a petition, there are dozens who feel the 
>same way.
>
>A broad coalition of citizen organizations is opposing Social Security 
>privatization, from seniors at AARP to young rockers at Rock the Vote to 
>faith groups like Catholic Charities USA. Young and old are united. Great 
>leadership is being provided by the Campaign for America's Future, the 
>AFL-CIO and US Action. But the most important voices that members of 
>Congress will be listening to are the voices of their constituents -- you.
>
>Please take just one minute right now to sign the petition at the link 
>below or keep reading for more information.
>
><http://www.moveon.org/socialsecurity/?id=5090-526064-mAfudgrvDGt0mC93Chb1rA>http://www.moveon.org/socialsecurity/
>
>One MoveOn member, Charlotte from Sunnyvale, California, told her members 
>of Congress why Social Security is important to her:
>
>"My mother lives on Social Security. She and my father worked hard all of 
>their lives, but raising 4 children didn't leave much money for retirement 
>savings. Social Security means that she has lived proudly and 
>independently since she had to stop working."
>
>There are millions of stories like Charlotte's. Please share your story 
>when you sign the petition.
>
>Here are some of the key facts we want you to know about Bush's plan to 
>privatize Social Security. These points are a great primer to use to talk 
>about Social Security with your friends, family and colleagues.
>    * George Bush's plan would make massive cuts in Social Security 
> benefits for future retirees in order to pay for private accounts. Social 
> Security privatization requires diverting taxes used to pay current 
> benefits into private accounts. Without that money, Social Security 
> benefits will inevitably be cut -- up to 46 percent for future retirees. 
> Even under rosy projections the private accounts don't make up the 
> difference. The deepest benefit cuts are for young people. Somebody in 
> their twenties today would see benefit cuts as high as 30 percent. Should 
> we really have to pay for Bush's risky private accounts with our 
> guaranteed benefits?
>
>    * Privatization means trillions of dollars of new national debt. 
> Because current Social Security taxes are used to pay for private 
> accounts taking that money out means huge deficits -- as high as $15 
> trillion over the next 40 years.
>    * Social Security is not going bankrupt, contrary to the president's 
> claims. That is a deception perpetrated in order to create the urgency 
> for radical changes. Under conservative forecasts, the long-term 
> challenges in Social Security do not manifest themselves until 2042. Even 
> then Social Security has 70 percent of needed funds. George Bush's Social 
> Security crisis-talk is an effort to create a specter of doom -- just 
> like the weapons of mass destruction claim in Iraq.
>
>So who does benefit? George Bush's base. Giant financial services firms 
>have been salivating for decades over the prospect of taking over Social 
>Security. They'd make billions in new fees -- essentially a new tax -- off 
>of our Social Security payments.
>
>These are just some of the reasons it is so important to speak out now 
>before our representatives have really formed their opinions. Please sign 
>the petition at the link below and forward this e-mail.
>
><http://www.moveon.org/socialsecurity/?id=5090-526064-mAfudgrvDGt0mC93Chb1rA>http://www.moveon.org/socialsecurity/
>
>Thanks for all you do.
>
>--Tom Matzzie, Eli Pariser and the whole MoveOn.org team
>   Thursday, February 10th, 2005
>
>P.S. For more information, here is a great resource from American Progress 
>Action Fund's new blog, Think Progress:
>
>How to Talk to a Conservative About Social Security (If You Must)
><http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=206>http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=206
>
>The White House and their deep-pocketed allies have launched a $35 million 
>public relations effort to spread misinformation about President Bush's 
>Social Security Privatization scheme. This fact sheet will arm you with 
>all the facts you'll need to take them on.
>
>FISCAL OUTLOOK
>
>CLAIM: "By the year 2042, the entire system would be exhausted and 
>bankrupt." [President Bush, 2/2/05]
>
>FACT: In 2042, enough new money will be coming in to pay between 73-80 
>percent of promised benefits. Even with this reduction, new retirees will 
>still receive more money, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than today's 
>beneficiaries. [WP, 2/5/05]
>
>CLAIM: "In the year 2018, for the first time ever, Social Security will 
>pay out more in benefits than the government collects in payroll taxes." 
>[President Bush, 12/11/04]
>
>FACT: "In 14 of the past 47 years, including 1975 to 1983, Social Security 
>paid out more in benefits than the government collected in payroll." 
>[MSNBC, 1/14/05]
>
>FACT: Under Bush's plan, expenditures will begin to exceed revenues even 
>earlier, in 2012. [New York Times, 2/4/05]
>
>CLAIM: "Under the current system, today's 30-year old worker will face a 
>27% benefit cut when he or she reaches normal retirement age." [GOP Guide 
>to Social Security Reform, 1/27/05]
>
>FACT: According to the Congressional Budget Office, younger workers would 
>receive better benefits from Social Security as it exists now, even if 
>nothing changes, than from President Bush's private accounts plan. [EPI, 2/05]
>
>THE PRESIDENT'S PLAN / PRIVATE ACCOUNTS
>
>CLAIM: "As we fix Social Security, we also have the responsibility to make 
>the system a better deal for younger workers. And the best way to reach 
>that goal is through voluntary personal retirement accounts." [President 
>Bush, 2/2/05]
>
>FACT: Analysis of the plan so far does not prove the accounts would be a 
>better deal for anyone not working on Wall Street. Workers who opt for the 
>private accounts would recover forfeited benefits through their accounts 
>only "if their investments realized a return equal to or greater than the 
>3 percent earned by Treasury bonds currently held by the Social Security 
>system." But CBO factors out stock market risks to assume a 3.3 percent 
>rate of return. With 0.3 percent subtracted for expected administrative 
>costs on the account, "the full amount in a worker's account would be 
>reduced dollar for dollar from his Social Security checks, for a net gain 
>of zero." [WP, 2/4/05]
>
>CLAIM: "You'll be able to pass along the money that accumulates in your 
>personal account, if you wish, to your children or grandchildren." 
>[President Bush, 2/2/05]
>
>FACT: Most lower-income workers will be required to purchase government 
>lifetime annuities, financial instruments that provide a guaranteed 
>monthly payment for life but that expire at death. Money in these 
>annuities cannot be passed on to heirs. [NYT, 2/3/05]
>
>CLAIM: "We must pass reforms that solve the financial problems of Social 
>Security once and for all." [President Bush, 2/2/05]
>
>FACT: "A Bush aide, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity 
>[said] that the individual accounts would do nothing to solve the system's 
>long-term financial problems." The long-term gap in revenue would "have to 
>be closed through benefit cuts that have yet to be detailed." [LAT, 
>2/3/05; WP, 2/5/05]
>
>CLAIM: "A personal account would be your account, you would own it, and 
>the government could never take it away." [President Bush, 2/8/05]
>
>FACT: Bush's Social Security plan is a far cry from the private ownership 
>he's touting, however. For example, instead of private plans that let 
>Americans control their own investments, there are tight restrictions on 
>which conservative stocks and bonds the public will be allowed to buy. 
>And, as the New York Times reports, "the more restrictions there are, the 
>harder it would be for people to achieve the outsized returns the 
>administration has generally promoted to sell the public on private 
>accounts." [NYT, 2/6/05]
>
>CLAIM: "Best of all, the [private] accounts would be replacing the empty 
>promises of government with the real assets of ownership." [President 
>Bush, 2/8/05]
>
>FACT: Social Security trust funds "hold nothing but U.S. Treasury 
>securities," recognized as "the safest, most reliable investment 
>worldwide." [Century Foundation, 1/26/05]
>
>CLAIM: "The problem that we now face is not one that we can tax our way 
>out of, for a very simple reason: The costs and the current program are 
>growing faster than the underlying tax base. So if we were to raise taxes 
>today to deal with it, and the costs of the program continued to grow 
>faster than the tax base, then in the future, future generations would 
>simply have to come back and raise taxes again." [Senior White House 
>Official, Press Conference, 2/3/05]
>
>FACT: An alternative proposal by Peter Diamond and Peter Orszag would 
>resolve Social Security's funding problems directly and permanently 
>through modest tax increases. The Congressional Budget Office states that, 
>"under Diamond-Orszag, the trust fund balance would always be positive and 
>scheduled benefits would be fully financed." [CBO, 12/22/04]
>
>HISTORY
>
>CLAIM: "Social Security was a great moral success of the 20th century, and 
>we must honor its great purposes in this new century." [President Bush, 2/2/05]
>
>FACT: Conservatives have been trying to gut Social Security since its 
>inception. Both Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan endorsed privatization 
>in 1964. In 1983, the Cato Institute laid out a privatization plan similar 
>to President Bush's, stating, "We will meet the next financial crisis in 
>Social Security with a private alternative ready in the wings." [Miami 
>Herald, 2/7/05]
>
>RHETORIC
>
>CLAIM: "I think it's important for people to be open about the truth when 
>it comes to Social Security." [President Bush, 2/4/05]
>
>FACT: The Bush administration has lobbied hard for privatization while 
>being notably closemouthed about the details. [WP, 2/6/05]
>
>FACT: The Wall Street Journal reports the White House is quietly 
>assembling a coalition of deep-pocketed allies "that will privately raise 
>$35 million for an advertising and lobbying effort to push the politically 
>risky measure through Congress." [WSJ, 2/4/05]
>
>CLAIM: "The role of a President is to confront problems – not to pass them 
>on to a future President, future Congress, or a future generation." 
>[President Bush, 2/4/05]
>
>FACT: Dick Cheney admits trillions of dollars in future borrowing will be 
>necessary to cover the cost of establishing private accounts. This deficit 
>would have to be repaid by today's younger workers. [NYT, 2/6/05]
>
>
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