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Winning the Fight to Protect Social Security

After months of fighting off President Bush's efforts to privatize Social Security, AFSCME and our allies in the anti-privatization camp can breathe a little easier. It now looks highly unlikely that any privatization legislation will move forward in the coming year. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) was recently quoted as saying he doubts legislation will move in Congress before 2009.

Another good sign is that Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA) — powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee — recently dropped his plan to include a Social Security overhaul in his pension bill. Even President Bush acknowledges that Congressional leaders may have lost their appetite for restructuring the system any time soon.

AFSCME WAS KEY. Most of the media coverage has credited AFSCME and the coalition it sponsored, Americans United to Protect Social Security, as key players in the campaign to block private accounts. In all our efforts over the last year, AFSCME retirees have played an important role — writing letters and postcards to lawmakers, sending letters to the editor, lobbying representatives and senators in their offices, and participating in local demonstrations and rallies.

Our side had a clear message: Privatization would dismantle Social Security, slash the system's guaranteed benefits, and expose workers and retirees to unacceptable levels of risk. It would also cost trillions of dollars — saddling our children and grandchildren with huge increases in the national debt for years to come.

LACK OF SUPPORT. By emphasizing the dangers, we seem to have won the battle for public opinion. Almost every poll shows that three out of every four Americans now oppose privatization. The privatizers in Congress failed to win support because, as it turns out, most people recognize the value of Social Security. The more people hear about private accounts, the more they're convinced they'd be a bad deal for everyone.

Social Security currently generates a surplus and, according to Social Security's Trustees, can pay 100 percent of benefits until at least 2041 and 73 percent thereafter. The resulting shortfall is a manageable problem, not a crisis. Because private accounts are so expensive, they would actually make the problem worse.

EVERYONE AT RISK. Also, private accounts put current retiree benefits at risk. The President has made the claim that private accounts would not affect people who are already retired. We're not so sure. Private accounts put everyone's Social Security at risk because the funds needed to set up the accounts are the same funds needed to pay current benefits. Everyone knows you can't spend the same money twice.

Ideologues on the extreme right wing have made it clear that they will not give up their decades-long campaign to privatize Social Security. The privatizers will be back, so we can never rest easy. We must be ever vigilant and always ready to fight another day.

 

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