Hands Off Social Security

President Bush acknowledged earlier this month that his main domestic goal of “saving” Social Security was going nowhere. Regarding his privatization scheme, he said, “There seems to be a diminished appetite in the short term, but I’m going to remind people that there are long-term issues that we must solve.”

If you thought privatization of Social Security was dead and we won, think again. According to the Dallas Morning News, the Republicans are planning a devious plan to sneak in private accounts this fall, doing it in a way that will not require Senate committee approval. And Karl Rove is involved, meaning this is still a high priority.

Saving Social Security from privatization will be a major theme at Labor Day celebrations around the country, as members of Congress prepare to head back to Washington. Working people are determined to put Congress on notice that any proposal that undermines or privatizes Social Security is not acceptable and must be voted down. As was done in the 1930s to win Social Security and other social legislation, a massive outpouring can achieve not only protection of Social Security, but expansion of it as well.

ALIQUIPPA, Pa. — If you want to start a fight in this tidy, hard-working former steel producing center, defend Bush and speak up for privatizing Social Security.

Efforts to convince us that Social Security faces a crisis often start with the demographic argument: the U.S. population is aging. The White House web site says that in 1950 there were 16 active workers supporting each Social Security beneficiary, that today there are only 3.3 workers for each beneficiary, and that by 2050 only 2 workers will be supporting each beneficiary.

PITTSBURGH — “Dear congressperson: What part of ‘no privatization, no private accounts to replace Social Security’ don’t you understand?”

Conventional wisdom says a conference of 1,400 members of the Future Farmers of America (FAA) at Penn State University in rural State College would be a safe bet for President Bush to sell his plan to privatize Social Security.

LA MARQUE, Texas — About 200 Texans met in this small community adjacent to Texas City (location of the recent BP refinery explosion), June 11, to express their opposition to the Bush administration plan to privatize Social Security. They were treated to rousing speeches by Congressperson Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston), Nick Lampson (former congressperson from Houston), Texas AFL-CIO President Emmett Sheppard and others.

In towns and cities across the country, Americans are turning up the heat on Republicans as well as Democrats to guarantee that Social Security, the country’s most successful and reliable program for the people, will be preserved — safe from any inside-the-Beltway deals.