Terry O’Neil to speak at U.W. forum on Social Security

Terry O’Neil, the highly respected national president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), will address “The Threat to Social Security: An Issue for All Generations” at a forum from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday,. November 21, at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus. (See flyer insert.)

Ms. O’Neil will discuss recent Washington D.C. developments concerning Social Security and the steps we can take to protect and improve this vital program.
Ms. O’Neil will headline a trio of speakers at the forum, sponsored by the Social Security Works Washington, a broad coalition of community and labor groups representing people across the state.

Also on the program is Congressman Jim McDermott, co-sponsor of HR 539, a bill to “scrap the cap” on payroll taxes so that high-income earners pay their fair share to keep Social Security fully solvent for the next 75 years. Representative McDermott is knowledgeable, both about how Social Security operates and also about its impact on the lives of everyday people.

A third speaker is Ron Sims, former King County Executive and retired deputy director of the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs. He will discuss the critical role Social Security plays in the lives of people in our communities.

A recent similar forum at Everett Community College drew an audience of 200 persons, about one-third of them under the age of 30. The forum was co-sponsored by Social Security Works WA, the Everett Community College Department of Political Science, and the Snohomish County Labor Council.

The Social Security Works WA Coalition has targeted outreach to three populations: young people, women and seniors. Young people are targeted because many of them know very little about Social Security and have been led to believe it will not be there for them when they get older. The coalition seeks to dispel that myth, and to persuade them to join the fight to preserve and strengthen Social Security so it will be there when they need it.

The coalition seeks to reach women because women live longer, and therefore rely longer on Social Security. In addition, women suffer wage disparities, leading to lower Social Security benefits. They also suffer a significant loss of income with the death of a spouse. Additionally, women heads of household more frequently rely on survivor benefits as a result of a spouse dying.

All these disparity problems could be addressed if the “earnings cap” were eliminated.

Note also that because women vote in greater numbers, they can strongly influence the positions taken by elected representatives.

Finally, seniors as a group are fully aware of the critical role of Social Security in their lives. They are a huge and growing voting block. Politicians are playing with fire if they mess around with Social Security benefits of seniors. Our goal is to rally the senior generation to tell the politicians, “Don’t you dare mess around with Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.”