Open Up Those Hearings!

By Robby Stern

“Whatever adjustments we make and whatever has been suggested for the last 10 years in Social Security reform … none of that affects anybody over 57. Where do I get my mail? From these old cats 70 and 80 years old who are not affected one whiff. People who live in gated communities and drive their Lexux to the Perkins restaurant to get the AARP discount. This is madness.” Thus spoke Alan Simpson on April 25th on FOX News in an interview that included his Fiscal Commission co-chair, Chester Bowles..

Evidently, former Sen. Alan Simpson in unaware that the vast majority of Social Security recipients do not fit his profile. More than one third of people 65 and older rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their income. Without Social Security, 55% of severely disabled workers and their families would live in poverty; 47% of elderly households would live in poverty; another 1.3 million children would fall into poverty. Women make up 60% of Social Security beneficiaries and they depend more heavily than men on Social Security for income in their retirement. Additionally, 75% of older Latinos and almost 80% of African Americans rely on Social security for more than half of their total income.

The Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform had its first meeting on April 27th. The President addressed the Commission presenting his argument concerning the grave danger facing our country posed by the fiscal deficit. Ben Bernanke, the chief of the Federal Reserve called for a combination of modifications to Medicare and Social Security. At his confirmation hearing for his second term as Federal Reserve Chair this year, Bernanke had recommended cuts to Social Security by quoting notorious bank robber, Willie Sutton, who, when asked why he robbed banks, replied “because that’s where the money is”.

To quote Nancy Altman, Co-Director of Social Security Works at her recent talk at the national ARA convention, “What a revealing picture – bank robbers, Ben Bernanke, and like-minded politicians, all eager to get their hands on the money hardworking Americans trustingly hand over every payday to what they believe is a safe institution. Americans should not be robbed of their Social security protections in order to pay for other government spending.”

The Commissioners, many of whom made statements during the meeting, are split on whether Social Security and Medicare should be targeted with several clearly calling for raising the age when seniors would be entitled to full Social Security benefits. There were also calls for reducing the indexing for the most affluent and changing the CPI (Consumer Price Index) to indexing that grows more slowly and possibly below the rate of inflation.

We will take the creation and work of the Commission very seriously. The Social Security Trust Fund is very healthy. There is a surplus of more than $2.4 trillion in the trust fund. Stories like a recent NY Time article stating that pay outs will exceed collections in 2010 fail to mention that there is another very significant source of revenue for the fund, i.e. the interest earned on the surplus. Social security is a target precisely because that is” where the money is”. It would be a big deficit reduction boon to write off some of the debt to the Social Security Trust Fund instead of dealing with the real causes: the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, two wars, and the unemployment caused by Wall Street produced recession. Letting the Bush tax cuts expire and putting people back to work would have an enormous effect in reducing the deficit to 3% of the national economy, the stated goal of the Commission.

At serious risk are the generations behind us who are dutifully paying their taxes to fund their retirement. It is for our children and grand children and the legacy of Social Security as a progressive and essential social insurance program that we must wage a fierce campaign.

Our first task is to exert as much pressure as possible to create transparency in the Commission proceedings. Other than the first session, the Commission will be meeting privately with advocates having little or no access to the deliberations other than what is communicated to them by friendly Commissioners. Private deliberations and decision making is intolerable. We must make our voices heard in demanding openness and transparency.

PSARA will engage in an educational campaign and a determined defense of Social Security. Combining our efforts with genuine suggestions on how to improve what is already one of the best government program in our country, we will need the help and support of all of our members.