February 18, 2005

BUSH THREATENS MILLIONS
WITH SOCIAL SECURITY PRIVATIZATION

By Edward Gorham

President

Maine AFL-CIO
 

     The Bush plan to privatize Social Security threatens the tens of millions of Americans already receiving benefits and it threatens the financial security of the young and middle aged not yet receiving benefits. Indeed, this ill conceived Wall Street oriented scheme economically threatens every working family.

     Organized labor and our allies see Bush for what he is and we see his drive to dismantle Social Security for what it is. We face one of the biggest challenges by the right wing Republican panderers to corporate America since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Campaign of Fear

     The subject is complicated but there is a huge amount of reliable information easily available. No thinking, impartial, non-political, well educated person who has reviewed the facts can possibly believe Bush or the misinformation, distorted figures, fear and “fuzzy math” he is now using. Bush is trying to divide the old from the young and frighten America into weakening and eventually destroying the most successful, efficient social safety net ever devised in this nation.

     However, to say this does not mean that the American people will rise and speak with one voice to reject Bush and his business-backed scheme.

     This is the social legislation fight of our generation. We have without doubt a massive education task ahead.

Master of Deceit

     Facts be damned. Bush is a master of deceit, innuendo and falsehood. This is proven by the fact that he is still in office. Immediately after his February 2 State of the Union  address to Congress he launched a Social Security “campaign trip” to a half dozen states to sell his scheme.

     With the help of the media, which repeats every Bush misstatement and fabrication over and over, the nation now faces a situation similar in many ways to the “big lie” pattern that pushed us into the war in Iraq. Similar misinformation now exists in the public’s mind on Social Security. A Washington Post poll in December found that 1 in 4 Americans thinks the Social Security system is in “crisis.”
     A Maine poll just before the Bush speech indicated that, in Maine, 75 percent of the people believe that Social Security is in a “crisis.”
 

Fog of Fear

     You only need to read the text of the Bush State of the Union address to clearly see the fog of fear he is intent on spreading across the nation.

     Bush states that Social Security is “headed toward bankruptcy.” He said by 2042 the “entire system would be exhausted and bankrupt.” He said Social Security is in danger of “collapsing.” He said if younger workers money put in the stock market it will inevitably  “grow, over time, at a greater rate than anything the current system can deliver.”

     Not a word of this is true. Extensive analysis, past history, reliable projections (including those by the Social Security Administration itself) unmask the Bush falsehoods.

     The real question in this all-important debate is “Are we going to believe and trust a man who has repeatedly mislead, misinformed and deceived us in the past?” This is the same man who promised in his first campaign for president never to engage in “nation building.” This is the man who promised to be a “uniter not a divider.”

This is the politician who said he would “reach across the aisle to get bi-partisan support.” And who can forget Bush told us we were living in a crisis threatened by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

     We have paid and are paying the price for these intentional deceptions. Are we going to continue to pay an even higher price and proceed to undermine and eventually destroy the Social Security system?

Many See the Truth

     Obviously I am no economist, researcher, actuary or Social Security analyst. So let me assure you that I am far from alone in pointing to the massive onslaught of untruth that is now taking place.

     The researchers at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. say, “The Bush administration has been making alarming claims that the current Social Security program is ‘in crisis’ and is unsustainable. These exaggerations simply are not true.”

     Does it need to be stated any plainer? Something that is “not true” is a falsehood.

     “If we allow them to frame it that way – that there is a crisis, and therefore we must go to private accounts – if we allow them to frame it that way, then we have perpetrated a fraud,” said Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, chair of the Democratic Policy Committee.

     My dictionary calls a “fraud” – a swindle, hoax or scam and that is just exactly what Americans face today – a swindle, hoax or scam under the guise of “fixing a Social Security crisis” that doesn’t exist.

A “Fake Crisis”

     Paul Krugman a noted economist and columnist stated in the New York Times that “It’s the standard Bush Administration tactic: invent a fake crisis to bully people into doing what you want.”

     My dictionary calls “fake” false, fraudulent and bogus.
     Peter Orszag, an economist at the Brookings Institution who heads the Pew Charitable Trust bipartisan Retirement Security Project, said, “I do think they are trying to create an artificial sense of crisis.”
     And here we are again with “artificial” being false, pretended, and fraudulent.
     Writing about the Bush plan “to topple Social Security” in the February 5 Portland Press Herald national columnist Cynthia Tucker said “Bush has mounted a campaign against Social Security using half-truths, misperceptions and falsehoods. They (the Bush Administration) have an agenda, and they are willing to distort, conceal and misrepresent to pursue it.”

Snowe Sees No Crisis
     Following the Bush speech Maine Congressman Tom Allen stated the matter clearly when he said, “The President's statement that Social Security will be ‘exhausted and bankrupt’ has created a false picture of the system's finances.  As Senator Snowe has admitted, there is no crisis.”

     Even the staid old New York Times editorialized (January 3) that the Bush statement that a Social Security “crisis” is now and there is a $10 trillion shortfall “is the closest you can get to pulling a number out of the air. Make that the ether. In effect, the administration’s plan would get rid of the financial burden of Social Security by getting rid of Social Security.”

     And there it is in black and white. Behind all the talk of “crisis” and fixing Social Security is the real desire of Bush and the Republican far right to completely eliminate Social Security.

No Reason for Support

     And in another editorial (January 24) the New York Times again made the matter clear stating that, “Privatization would require potentially debilitating borrowing up front, in exchange for a drastically reduced benefit later on, no matter how well, or poorly, private accounts performed. So there’s no reason for senior citizens to support it and plenty of reasons to oppose it.”

     Not to burden you with more definitions but when it says “drastically” the New York Times is talking about Social Security benefits that are horribly, frightfully, badly, notoriously, unbelievably, seriously, fatally, fearfully, and/or staggeringly reduced.
     But in his speech Bush assures those under 55 that personal accounts are a “better deal.” He said their money will grow, over time “at a greater rate that anything the current system can deliver…”

Stock Market Risks

     Bush, who is obviously no student of history, evidently never read about downturns and long famines in the stock market. In the last century there were three 20-year periods (1901 to 1921, 1928 to 1948, and 1962 to 1982) when the stock market generated average real financial rates of return of zero percent. We don’t need to look up “zero percent” in the dictionary but history, whether Bush reads about it or not, makes it clear that these zero gain droughts in the stock market happened in 60 out of 100 years. They make it clear that younger people would be gambling on the market with their financial future. They make it clear that, under such circumstances, private investments in stocks will not provide sufficient returns to support a decent standard of living in retirement.

     But despite all this, the Bush manure spreader rolls on and we are still in the dark on exactly what Bush is proposing.

No Specifics from Bush

     Commenting on the Bush State of the Union speech, the Washington Post (February 3) said, “Bush offered no specifics on the more difficult question of what changes would be made elsewhere in the program….” The newspaper added that Bush made suggestions but declined to “take ownership” of any of these “politically risky” changes, offering them instead as ideas offered in the past by other politicians. The New York Times (February 3) said Bush made a lot of promises but “Mr. Bush fudged on the most critical points.”

     Promises, promises, promises – are we really going to buy more Bush promises?

     The facts are clear. There is no Social Security crisis. This point is so important that it bears repeating. There is no Social Security crisis!
    At most there is a possible (not certain but possible) long-term problem that could be remedied with some changes as has been done by Congress several times in the past. For instance, the one correction that Bush rules out completely is to end the $90,000 cut off point for workers to pay the Social Security payroll tax. If persons earning between $90,000 and $110,000 paid the Social Security tax, any upcoming problems would be resolved.

Mounting a Challenge

     There are many aspects of the Social Security program and its value to be discussed and much educating of the general public to be done. However, the AFL-CIO and many other organizations are mounting a challenge to the Bush campaign of deliberate misinformation. President John Sweeney has committed us to fight to protect the Social Security program which offers retirement and disability income to more than 47 million Americans (more than 250,000 of them in Maine).
    But there is no doubt we have a major battle on our hands. On January 1 the Washington Post reported that Bush corporate and business political allies are “raising millions of dollars for an election-style campaign to promote private Social Security accounts.” The campaign fundraising is being spearheaded by the National Association of Manufacturers. The head of the conservative Club for Growth (which itself plans to raise $15 million to help the Bush Social Security campaign) said that the total business will spend could “easily be $50 to $100 million.”
     In the future Maine unions, Maine workers and working families will hear much more about this issue. But the battle lines are already clearly drawn and there are huge political implications as we move toward the 2006 congressional election. We must make sure that every working family and every union household knows the facts and that all the cards are on the table. For openers we can start with the fact that the Bush record makes it abundantly clear that we can’t trust Bush to keep promises and we can’t believe anything he says even when it is trumpeted by the media.