Action Alert #46 – Support Our Citizen Lobbyists NOW!

Members of the National Education Association and other citizen lobbyists from across the country are in Washington this week talking to Congress about repealing the GPO and WEP. We need to back them up NOW!

If you haven’t yet bookmarked your two Senators or your Member of Congress, find them on these websites:

http://www.house.gov/ (put in your Zip Code to find your Representative) 
http://www.senate.gov/ (put in your state to find your Senator)

Call them or email them. (Letters take too long to go through security) Please get at least three of your family members or friends to do this also. Now is the time! Tell your own story or use the words below.

The Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision were stuck into the last Social Security reform laws without careful consideration. They are BAD law. Don’t let Congress mess up Social Security again—fix it by raising the Cap on payroll deductions and repealing the GPO and WEP!

Repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision, a poorly-designed law, which cuts a higher percentage of Social Security benefits for low and middle-income workers than it does for high-income earners. (see CRS Report 1/29/2010)

Eliminate the Government Pension Offset, which heavily penalizes more women than men.  It penalizes in two ways.  First, the GPO takes away earned Social Security spousal benefits from those who have stayed home to care for children if they have even a short governmental or teaching career later in life.  In addition, many of those affected receive NONE of their spouse’s normal Social Security survivor benefits after that spouse dies.

These offsets are unconscionable! Fixing Social Security must include eliminating these cruel and unfair political attacks on public service workers. Less than 2% of Social Security’s annual expenditures would be involved!

Thank you for responding to this urgent call to action!