Support Social Security As We Know It

Oct 18, 2004 11:32 AM

This resolution was UNANIMOUSLY adopted at the RTC Membership Meeting of November 18th.  It now goes to the UFT Executive Board and Delegate Assembly for vote.

WHEREAS, for nearly 70 years, Social Security has been the most successful and popular federal government program, providing support for tens of millions of American workers and guaranteed retirement, survivorship and disability protection today to more than 46 million Americans at all stages of life, including 3.9 million children; and

WHEREAS, the current Social Security system is the nation’s most successful shield against poverty, keeping 13.5 million older and disabled Americans and nearly 1.5 million children out of poverty, and reducing the poverty rate among seniors from 35 percent in 1959 to under 11 percent today; and

WHEREAS, the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund estimates that the Social Security Trust Funds will be solvent until 2041, providing ample time to discuss and examine solutions with deliberation and care; and

WHEREAS, some members of President Bush’s 2001 Social Security Commission recommended privatization of Social Security which would result in private individual accounts, and;

WHEREAS, because of the huge tax cut for the wealthy, other recommendations, if enacted, would likely result in benefit cuts for current Social Security recipients and those nearing retirement and draconian cuts for younger workers, a rise in the retirement age to 70, and a significant increase in the already ballooning federal deficit; and

WHEREAS, private investment accounts could require substantial reductions in survivor and disability benefits; and

WHEREAS, none of the Bush commission proposals address the long-term solvency of the Social Security system; and

WHEREAS, individual private accounts would reduce guaranteed benefits and leave each recipient’s income at the mercy of the fluctuations of the stock market and force each recipient to rely on his or her ability to make informed investment decisions; and

WHEREAS, Social Security is much more efficient than any system of private accounts, with administrative costs of one percent, versus private insurance management costs of 12 percent to 14 percent; and

WHEREAS, the UFT believes that the long-range solvency of the Trust Funds can be restored within the social insurance framework of the existing system, therefore be it:

RESOLVED, that the UFT reaffirms its long standing commitment to Social Security as expressed most recently in the Delegate Assemblies of June 14, 2000 and February 13, 2002; and

RESOLVED, that the UFT urge the AFT and the AFL-CIO to continue to oppose creation of individual private accounts which divert resources from the Social Security Trust Funds; and be it finally

RESOLVED, that the UFT urge the AFT and the AFL-CIO to continue to forcefully communicate to federal elected officials the importance of preserving Social Security as we know it and enlist members of grassroots campaigns to resist any legislation that would undermine the current Social Security system by creating such private individual accounts.