Social Security
Richard L. Trumka
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer
July 2002
Full Text of Audio Clips
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Social Security is Important to Working Families (:52)
Social Security is the retirement plan for America's workers and their families. It’s a lifeline for more than 46 million Americans, including retirees, children who have lost a parent, people with disabilities and widows. Social Security’s benefits keep tens of millions of older Americans out of poverty. Unfortunately, most older Americans just don’t have much besides Social Security. Fewer than one-third receive private pensions and most haven’t been able to save enough on their own to provide adequate income. Social Security is the one part of our retirement income system that is actually working for everyone. We need Social Security today and we will need it just as much in the future.
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Bush’s Privatization Plan Will Cut Guaranteed Benefits (1:27)
President Bush and his supporters in Congress want to drain Social Security funds to privatized individual accounts. Their plan would cut Social Security benefits significantly—even for retirees who don’t want the privatized accounts, including people with disabilities. Young retirees, even those who do not opt for private accounts, would lose a big chunk of the Social Security benefits they would get under current law. For example, someone retiring 30 years from now would lose 17 percent of his or her benefits! And for people born in 2001 who retire at age 65 in 2066, benefits would be reduced by 41 percent! Bush’s privatization plan would create huge financial risks for working families and it likely would raise the retirement age above 67. Privatizing Social Security is enormously expensive. Transitioning to private accounts would cost more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years! Retirement security is far too important to gamble on private accounts. Ask Enron workers—they lost millions from 401(k) plans when Enron’s stock became worthless.
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Republican Leaders Don’t Want to Talk About Privatization Plan (1:52)
The biggest challenge facing working families and their unions is keeping the “security” in Social Security. They want Social Security strengthened—not weakened—by privatization. But President Bush and the Republicans in Congress have a secret plan to privatize Social Security that they don’t want to talk about until after the November congressional elections. What are they trying to hide—that privatizing Social Security will cut benefits, raise the retirement age, weaken Social Security and subject working families’ hard-earned money to the risks of the stock market? They want to turn our most successful family protection program over to Wall Street money managers who stand to reap millions of dollars in fees if Social Security is privatized. Working families have to demand to know where candidates for Congress stand on Bush’s secret Social Security privatization scheme before Election Day. Don’t let them hide behind the wall of silence until after the elections. We must protect Social Security NOW!
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America’s Voters Can Help Strengthen Social Security (1:27)
The future of Social Security is a top priority for all working families—that’s why we’re encouraging all voters to make their voices heard in this upcoming congressional election. We know the senators and representatives that we elect this year will decide the future of Social Security—whether Social Security will continue to be the one guaranteed income retirees, survivors and people with disabilities can rely upon. We also know that the candidates for Congress will eventually decide whether seniors can afford life-saving prescription drugs. When the candidates for the U.S. House and Senate ask for your vote in November—ask for theirs. Ask them to sign the AFL-CIO Pledge to Support Social Security and Medicare. The pledge can be found on our website at http://www.aflcio.org/. Take copies to candidate forums—mail the pledge to every candidate for federal office—and encourage others you know to do the same.
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The Future of Social Security and Medicare for Today’s Workers (1:26)
Privatization supporters have used misleading scare tactics to paint a false image of the state of Social Security. They have tried to scare workers into thinking Social Security won’t be there for them in the future. The truth is, the system will remain sound for four more decades even with no changes at all. A plan to strengthen Social Security, like lifting the earnings ceiling for Social Security contributions or rolling back a portion of last year’s tax cut—which mainly went to the rich—would make a difference in reducing Social Security’s long-term shortfall. But instead of strengthening Social Security, the Bush Administration and the Republicans in Congress want to take benefits from American workers and their families. We can stop Bush’s dangerous privatization scheme from becoming law by voting this November for congressional candidates who support a working family agenda.
