Report Shows Social Security Is Strong for the Long
Term

by Mike Hall
Aug 5, 2010
http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/08/05/report-shows-social-security-is-strong-for-the-long-term/

Despite the nation's overall economic problems, Social
Security is still in long-term strong shape, according
to the most recent report by the Social Security Board
of Trustees. The trustees project that after 2037, tax
revenue will be sufficient to pay 78 percent of full
benefits. The projected funding shortfall over 75 years
is actually lower than in last year's report.

Also, a report by Medicare's Board of Trustees shows
that the recently enacted health care reform law will
significantly slow Medicare cost growth, thereby
extending the life of Medicare's trust fund for 12
years, reducing Part B premiums and reducing the
federal deficit.

Social Security's $2.5 trillion trust fund will
continue to grow for another 14 years and Social
Security will pay out full benefits from its own
dedicated resources for another 27 years, according to
the report.

Says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:

The reports are a needed comeuppance to right-wing,
ideological opponents of Social Security and Medicare
who, year after year, twist the facts to undermine
public confidence in these essential programs, hoping
that this will lessen public resistance to their wildly
unpopular agenda of benefit cuts, privatization, and
vouchers.

The report is not likely to slow what Nancy Altman and
Eric Kingston, co-chairs of the just-launched coalition
Strengthen Social Security.Don't Cut It, call the
growing drumbeat that has

convinced much of the political and media elite that
Social Security is in crisis, unaffordable, out of
date, and should be changed fundamentally-or at the
very least, cut back for those not yet retired.

Click here to read their recent op-ed in the Cap Times.

The federal budget deficit commission, by all accounts,
is considering benefits cuts, including raising the
retirement age, even though as the AFL-CIO told a House
Ways and Means committee hearing last month, Social
Security "is not a principal contributor to deficits in
the short or the long term."

Electrical Workers (IBEW) President Edwin Hill writes
in a Huffington Post column this week that along with
anti-Social Security politicians like House Minority
Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), Wall Street also is
singing in the benefit-cut chorus.

Former Lehman Brothers chief executive Peter Peterson
is launching a multi-million dollar campaign to
convince voters that without immediate cutbacks to
Social Security benefits, our country faces imminent
financial collapse.

In addition, Hill writes that "a swath of new Tea
Party-inspired" GOP candidates have

gone on record in support of privatizing Social
Security, including Senate candidates Sharron Angle in
Nevada and Rand Paul in Kentucky. [and Ohio Rep. John
Boehner] have dodged the question about whether or not
the GOP will try to privatize Social Security if it
takes over Congress in November.

Altman says politicians "should stop scaring the
American people."

Social Security is strong and should be strengthened,
not cut. The reality is the biggest threat to Social
Security is the politicians in Washington who continue
to play politics with this issue.

The Campaign for America's Future (CAF) has launched a
new campaign to send a message to every politician in
Washington-Hands off Social Security!

You can click here to sign the petition that tells
lawmakers:

We need to strengthen Social Security, not cut it. That
is why I oppose any cuts to Social Security benefits,
including increasing the retirement age. I also oppose
any effort to privatize Social Security, in whole or in
part.

CAF is partnering with MoveOn.org, Democracy for
America, Credo Action and the Teamsters to send the
messages.

Also, as part of the upcoming 75th anniversary (Aug.
14) of Social Security being signed into law, the
Alliance for Retired Americans wants to hear your
stories about how Social Security has made a difference
in your life-or positively impacted a family member,
neighbor or friend. It could be a

* A story about you, a family member, a friend or a
   neighbor.

* A story about Social Security helping a family
   survive after a tragedy

* A story about Social Security making retirement
   possible.

If you are a younger worker who would be affected by
cuts in Social Security benefits or raising the
retirement age-especially if you are one of 78 million
Americans who does not have a retirement plan through
your employer or has a 401(k) slammed by the economy,
you can submit you concerns and worries about Social
Security too.

You can submit your story to the American Stories
Project here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3YVTX9F.

_____________________________________________

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