Action Alert #48 – Social Security is Not a Toy!

The White House is talking about cutting the size of cost of living increases for “wealthier” current receivers of Social Security, using the “Chained CPI” which will result in drastic cuts in earnings over the years. It is not clear what they mean by “wealthy.” Whatever savings might result from these Fiscal Cliff negotiations have nothing to do with the debt. It is just a trick to prevent the federal treasury from paying out money that it already owes to the Social Security account. It will weaken Social Security and make it harder to repeal the GPO and WEP.

Please call or email your legislators (www.house.gov, www.senate.gov) and the President (http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact). Tell them:

Social Security is not a toy!

Don’t use it to make a political deal. Don’t give people who make $500K a year a tax break and cut Soc. Security earnings for people who earn $50K!  Social Security doesn’t need to be cut to balance the federal budget! The program needs an independent overhaul including the repeal of the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision!

It is a busy time, but please take a few minutes to make your voice heard on this issue. Thanks!

MORE INFO:

Here is a link to an article which explains the current proposal:

Five sticking points in the fiscal cliff deal

Here is part of an article by Mike Konczal which talks about the importance of Social Security for American retirees at different levels of income:

This is not a program that just helps the destitute; it provides a broad level of income security in old age for the majority of retirees. The average elderly family receiving Social Security gets 58.2 percent of their income from the program. A quarter of families get 90 percent or more of their income from Social Security. Once you leave the top income quintile, Social Security is the major source of retirement security. It is hard to see how means-testing these across-the-board cuts will be sufficient to prevent this from having a serious impact on our most vulnerable.

Link to the whole article:

How Do the Elderly Spend Money and the Difficulty of Protecting Against Social Security Cuts

An angry Facebook response to the Prsident from one of our followers:

Pres. Obama, I campaigned for you, I donated to your campaign and I voted for you twice. I also studied Simpson-Bowles and Domenici-Rivlin so I know about the chained CPI and the harm it can do cumulatively to seniors, especially women who live the longest and usually rely more on social security. Women, especially single women, were your biggest supporters. If you agree to using C-CPI, you are betraying us. The rate of inflation for seniors is actually higher than the regular CPI because of higher health care costs which rise faster than the average rate of inflation. You must not cave on this. Work on CPI-E, the experimental inflation rate for seniors. Cut Medicare costs by bargaining directly with the Pharma companies.

Raise the ceiling on FICA contributions. Don’t use chained CPI. Don’t cave and betray us.