EDITORIAL
We Have Our Own Mandate:
Make Social Security Whole!

Dec 6, 2004

No one gave Bush a mandate to destroy Social Security.

But that’s what he’s proposing to do.

Of course, he says that he only wants to "improve" it reducing Social Security payments, replacing that with "individual investment accounts."

To put his proposal in terms we are more familiar with, he wants to do what many companies have already done replace a guaranteed pension with a 401(k) plan, which is nothing but a crapshoot, with the odds stacked against you.

Anyone who depends on a 401(k) plan in place of a pension knows what that means at the end of the day, there’s nothing you can count on. Might as well play the lottery.

As the push for getting rid of Social Security heats up, we are going to hear more and more about "baby boomers" until we are sick to death of the term. This generation will supposedly bankrupt Social Security as they begin to retire.

This is nothing but a big fat lie, aimed at convincing us that the politicians must get rid of Social Security in order to save it!

In fact, every independent analysis has shown that not only can Social Security deal with the temporary bulge of retirees represented by the "baby boomers," it has money enough for the foreseeable future that is, for the next four decades. After that, there are so many economic unknowns that no one can say what will happen.

For decades, we have been fed this lie that Social Security was about to run out of money. Not only has it still not happened, the year in which it’s supposed to happen keeps getting pushed further and further into the future.

Bush and the Republicans are not the only ones preparing to destroy Social Security. Even while pretending they want to protect it, the Democrats have been busy spreading the same propaganda about the "baby boomers" threatening Social Security.

Yes, of course, there’s a great big problem with Social Security and the whole pension system. Employers have been dumping pensions and now they are trying to dismantle Social Security. That’s what’s wrong!

We need to strengthen Social Security, not dismantle it!

We need one single pension system, handled centrally, paid into by every employer, for every worker, with every worker able to draw a single decent pension, paid through Social Security when he or she retires. Our pensions should not be dependent on whether we worked for one employer most of our work lives. No matter whether we worked 30 years for one boss or 5 years each for six bosses, we deserve a full pension not a patchwork of small change.

Other countries have single pension systems, handled by government, paid out to every worker who puts in enough years and many of them pay out bigger pensions than we get, with our pensions and Social Security combined. If other countries can do that, this country, with all its wealth, could do it too.

Don’t let the politicians set the agenda for us. The working class needs its own mandate: increase and extend Social Security, don’t attack it! A full pension for every worker!