Opposing the Privatization of Social Security

June 18, 2005

WHEREAS, Social Security has bequeathed to our citizenry a guaranteed retirement safety net for millions of Americans since 1935 by having each succeeding generation provide for the next, and

WHEREAS, current Congressional Budget Office projections report the trust fund will remain solvent through 2052, afterwards covering 81% of promised benefits, with no change to the program, while transition costs alone for abandoning Social Security in favor of private accounts are estimated at over 2 trillion dollars, and

WHEREAS, the so-called "crisis" in Social Security is a manufactured scare tactic by the Bush Wall Street contributors who intend to overthrow this most basic of American institutions by dividing Americans, and

WHEREAS, the privatization schemes being championed by the greedy on Wall Street have failed miserably abroad in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Chile and elsewhere, and

WHEREAS, the Bush Administration’s privatization scheme, as reported in the Washington Post [5 February 2005] transition costs will “require benefit cuts, tax increases, limits on eligibility, higher deficits, or a combination of these” in order to be implemented, and

WHEREAS, the current Social Security system performs better than the privatization schemes put forth by the Bush Administration, and

WHEREAS, the defense of Social Security is a core value for Democrats in Pennsylvania, and

WHEREAS, Social Security can only be protected, saved and enhanced if Democrats present a united, vigorous and defiant front against all Republican efforts to destroy it directly or indirectly;

BE IT RESOLVED, that the Berks County Democratic Party opposes any effort to phase out and/or replace Social Security, in whole or in part, in favor of a privatized accounts-based system, and

RESOLVED, that we call upon all our elected Congressional officials [House and Senate] to repair the current Social Security system through increasing or removing the cap on payroll deductions, eliminate or at least reduce the tax cuts the current administration wants to make permanent by 50% and designate that money to Social Security, replace the borrowed Social Security reserve money and prohibit future borrowing, increase the minimum wage by at least one dollar ($1.00) an hour thereby providing increased payroll taxes into Social Security, and

RESOLVED, that we call upon all our elected Congressional officials [House and Senate] to unequivocally state that they will oppose any plan to alter Social Security that involves the diversion of any portion of payroll taxes into so-called private accounts; and

RESOLVED, we pledge as individuals and members of the Berks County Democratic Party that we will withhold our endorsement along with our moral and financial support from any Democrat that fails to hold firm against the privatizing onslaught against Social Security.

Submitted by

Berks County Democratic Party Executive Committee