Social
Security Resolution
Whereas:
•
Social Security is the crown jewel of Democratic political
accomplishments of the twentieth century;
• The right wing of the Republican Party has yearned
to destroy Social Security since its inception;
• According to the Social Security Administration, current
revenues are sufficient to pay full benefits until 2042;
• According to the Congressional Budget Office, current
revenues are sufficient to pay full benefits until 2052;
• After 2042/52 current revenues will be sufficient
to pay around 70 percent of scheduled benefits;
• Since benefits rise faster than inflation, even these
post-2042/52 checks will be larger in real terms than those
received by today's retirees;
• The economic projections used by the SSA are very
pessimistic and assume that the US economy will grow far slower
in the future than it has in the recent past;
• The economic projections used to tout privatization
are by contrast quite optimistic, resulting in an apples to
oranges comparison designed to mislead the American people;
• Social Security performs better that privatization
if the same economic projections are used to compare the two
approaches;
• Currently, Social Security is running a surplus, unlike
the non-Social Security portions of the budget;
• The Bush privatization plan not only entails a guarantee
of benefit cuts as large or larger than the cuts that are
merely possible under the status quo, but will saddle this
nation with $2 trillion in debt that will stifle economic
growth and ultimately raise our taxes;
• The replacement of Social Security with mandatory
savings has been tried -- and largely failed -- in countries
as diverse as Chile and Sweden, where the government has been
repeatedly forced to choose between large injections of new
tax dollars and rapidly rising rates of elder poverty;
• The Bush administration and the right wing echo chamber
have embarked upon a campaign of lies and disinformation aimed
at destroying social security using tactics similar to those
they used to start the disastrous and unnecessary war in Iraq;
• Social Security should be a defining issue for Democrats;
• Social Security can be saved only if Democrats present
a united and vigorous front against all attempts to destroy
it; directly or indirectly;
• It is essential that all Democrats in the Congress
announce their unalterable opposition to any and all plans
to privatize the current system, in whole or in part, in order
to deprive the Republicans of the veneer of bipartisanship;
• We have noted with dismay that too many Democrats
in Congress have failed to learn that the present Republican
party views talk of compromise as a sign of weakness; and
• Democrats in Congress have even failed to see that
it is to their political advantage to oppose the Republicans
as they attempt to destroy the most popular social program
ever enacted in this country.
Now
therefore, we the Groton Democratic Town Committee must:
Call
upon our Senators, Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman,
to unequivocally state that they will oppose any plan to alter
Social Security that involves the diversion of any portion
of payroll taxes to private accounts; and
Call upon our elected Democratic Representatives and Congresspersons
to pressure their so called moderate Republican colleagues
to take a position for or against this attempt to destroy
Social Security; and
Pledge ourselves to withdraw our support, political, moral
and financial, from any Democrat that fails to hold firm against
the right wing’s attempt to destroy Social Security.
