Retirement Insights -- Taking the Pledge to Preserve Social Security
By Karen Gilgoff
For the last few months, a pledge has been circulating among congressional incumbents and challengers that, if signed and if they are elected, obliges them not to support the privatization of Social Security."Privatization" is defined as "diverting any Social Security revenues to fund private investment accounts or substituting private investment accounts for any portion of Social Security's guaranteed benefits."
The document also requires signers to support an optional, affordable comprehensive drug benefit under Medicare. The Pledge to Protect Social Security and Medicare is being sponsored by the Campaign for America's Future (CAF) and dozens of allied organizations, including AFSCME.
According to CAF, a significant number of candidates support privatizing Social Security but don't want voters to know that until after Election Day. CAF has compiled dozens of candidate profiles showing that many have already endorsed specific privatization proposals or have been quoted in the media as supporting the general concept.
Bush commission
In doing so, they've followed the lead of President Bush, a longtime privatizer. Last year, the President appointed a commission to recommend ways to incorporate private accounts into Social Security, and he often mentions his support for privatization in speeches. Bush says he wants Congress to address the issue in 2003; significantly that, too, is after congressional elections.
So why wait to debate the issue? One reason is the decline in the stock market, which made the concept of private accounts look risky indeed. Another is the recent barrage of corporate and Wall Street scandals (see Executive Greed: A Plague of Corporate Scandals).
The biggest reason for delay, however, is this: Reading the polls, privatization advocates know that the majority of seniors oppose Social Security privatization — and that large numbers of seniors vote in non-Presidential elections. No congressional candidate wants to anger older voters by making them think he or she would support privatization if elected. Nevertheless, many will support it if it comes up in the next congressional session.
'Sign here'
To make sure candidates state their honest views, AFSCME has actively supported pledge efforts around the country. President McEntee sent a copy of the pledge to every U.S. senator and representative, urging them to sign. The union has also sponsored news conferences and town hall meetings, where incumbents and challengers are asked to sign the pledge.
"If voters elect a majority of pledge signers on Nov. 5, Social Security and Medicare will be safer in the next Congress," McEntee said. For more information, log onto theSign the Pledge website.
The Pledge to Protect Social Security & Medicare
I pledge to the people of my district and state — and to the American people — that I will strengthen and protect Social Security and Medicare for the 21st century.
I will oppose privatizing Social Security, partially or totally. This means I will oppose diverting any Social Security revenues to fund private investment accounts or substituting private investment accounts for any portion of Social Security's guaranteed benefits. I will not support any of the White House commission's privatization plans, which involve diverting trillions of dollars from Social Security to fund private accounts, cutting Social Security's retirement, survivors and disability benefits, and would have the effect of forcing retirees to work longer than under current law in order to receive full benefits. I will oppose any plan that includes any of these benefit cuts to finance private investment accounts.
I will support a Medicare prescription drug benefit, to be provided within the Medicare program as an option to all beneficiaries. I pledge to support a plan that will have sufficient Medicare funding to ensure affordable premiums and cost-sharing, that will cover all drugs beneficiaries need, and that will empower Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies for lower prices. I will oppose efforts to turn Medicare's guaranteed health benefits into a voucher system or to push beneficiaries into HMOs and other managed care plans.
