Social Security Explained

Almost all of the speakers at the UAW Leadership Institute in Norman, Oklahoma in early June spoke about the attack on Social Security, Education Rep Keith Skotnes said that President Bush's "60-day" tour on Social Security started about 100 days ago, but had failed to convince the American people that privatization was a good idea. Skotnes said that Social Security is not an investment scheme but a "social insurance program." It is "Based on the philosophy that we're all kind of in this together!'

Social Security became law in 1935 with 2 parts: old age, and disability. It was intentionally flexible so that Congress can change it as needed. Medicare was added to the program in 1965. Skotnes said that around 50% of all American seniors, half of the older people, lived n poverty prior to 1935. "Now," he said, "it's close to 10% of seniors who live in poverty." The Social Security trust fund has about $1.7 trillion in 2005 and will grow to $ 3.6 trillion by 2013. The cost of tax cuts for the top 1% of Americans, if made permanent, would be $2.9 trillion, Skotnes added.

Skotnes presented facts that exposed rightwing lies about the original purposes of Social Security. Rightwingers had gone so far as to misquote President Roosevelt in an attempt to make it appear that he supported privatization! A short video ended with this comment: "It turns out, those guys just pretty much made it up."

Chuck Gayney is Director of the Social Security Department of the UAW. He addressed the Summer School in order to explain the proposals of the Bush Administration, even though these proposals have never been presented as a coherent plan. He cautioned that the Bush Administration plays "fast and loose" with the figures. For example, they instituted a completely unreliable method of projecting costs and benefits of Social Security into the indefinite future, then they used those figures as "proof" that privatization is needed. As he finished explaining this aspect of the war of words, he said, "If people are laughing, they should be laughing, because that's all the respect it deserves!"

He explained that rightwingers try to bully anybody who opposes them. For example, they accuse any detractors of introducing "class warfare." Gayney said, "For once I agree with them, there is class warfare going on. But it's against the middle class." He explained the tremendous shift in incomes from working people to the very rich: "You haven't seen this much change in incomes since the 1930s."

The intent of the Bush Administration is simple, Gayney explained: "They want to gut social Security!" He pointed out that the stream of misleading information and statistics are only a smokescreen for the rightwingers' true intentions: "It has nothing to do with the numbers, nothing to do with the economy. It's all in the ideology."

Gayney gave a simple solution to our economic problems: "The underlying problem is that the economy is slowing down and wages are getting lower. If we had high wages, the problem would take care of itself."

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