Also, read the 2004 Presbyterian General
Assembly policy, "On Reaffirming the Importance of Our Nation s Social
Insurance System (Social Security and Medicare)."
Washington, DC - Today, as the Senate Finance Committee prepares to hold
its first hearing on Social Security, the Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights (LCCR) is launching a campaign to protect Social Security from
privatization and painful potential benefit cuts. LCCR, the nation's oldest,
largest and most diverse civil and human rights coalition, is joined by
LULAC, the NAACP and its College & Youth Division, the National Council on
Independent Living and the National Partnership for Women & Families at a
news conference on Capitol Hill in launching the new national campaign.
"Protecting Social Security from the President's high risk privatization
scheme is critical because it is one of our nation's most fundamental civil
rights programs," said Wade Henderson, executive director of LCCR.
"Privatization will effectively discriminate against women, Americans with
disabilities and minorities by denying them a secure retirement. It will
play roulette with the welfare and retirement security of more than 47
million retirees. We will not stand by and let the President undermine the
retirement security that so many Americans have spent their whole lives
working for or allow cuts to programs that so many Americans count on to
make ends meet."
Although privatization will have disastrous effects on all Americans,
racial and ethnic minorities, Americans with disabilities, women and
children will be particularly hard hit. Social Security's progressive
benefit structure provides the greatest support to low-wage and part-time
workers, who are more likely to be minorities, Americans with disabilities
and women. The president's privatization scheme would lead to crippling
benefit cuts and would push many low-income retirees into poverty and debt.
* Privatization would rob women and children of security. Debra L. Ness,
President of the National Partnership for Women & Families explained, "Women
are already disadvantaged in retirement because we are paid less, live
longer, assume more care-giving responsibilities and are less likely than
men to have private pensions. Women rely heavily on Social Security. We are
three in five recipients. More than half of older women would be poor
without their Social Security benefits."
* Privatization is a gamble the Latino community cannot afford. "Private
accounts made up of stocks and bonds are a risky investment - not a secure
insurance policy," said Brent Wilkes, the executive director of League of
United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). "Latino families cannot be placed at
risk and we cannot support any project that jeopardizes Social Security. Not
only is it a retirement insurance that is a pillar of the middle-class way
of life, but it accounts for the disadvantaged - the lost, least and
forgotten."
* Privatization would lead to deep benefit cuts that would hurt workers
with disabilities and their families. John Lancaster, the executive director
of the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) explained, "More than
seven million Social Security checks go to people with disabilities and
their families to help them live and work independently. NCIL believes that
the proposed private accounts could result in major benefit cuts, massive
new government borrowing, and could destroy the social insurance system
designed to reduce risk from certain life events."
* Privatization would put African Americans at risk. Hilary Shelton, the
Washington Director of the NAACP explained, "All three Social Security
programs - retirement, disability and survivors' benefits - are
disproportionately important to the economic survival of African Americans
and other racial and ethnic minority Americans. Americans of color have
traditionally been at the low end of the earning scale over our lifetimes.
We are historically more apt to have pursued physically demanding jobs in
our lifetimes, and as such have a lower life expectancy and a higher rate of
disability than the average American."
"Social Security is so much more than a retirement program," said
Henderson. "It is the only source of income for four out of ten older
African Americans and Latinos, it prevents one out of two women over the age
of 65 from slipping into poverty and enables 7 million Americans with
disabilities and their families to live independently. We shouldn't be
gambling with America's future, tossing our hard earned retirement into
private accounts that may or may not give us and our families the security
we need. The President's privatization scheme would gut survivor and
disability programs, leave our retirement security to chance and undermine
one of our country's single most important civil rights programs."
Social Security: One of Our Most Important Civil Rights Programs
* Social Security is one of our most important civil rights programs. It
protects the welfare and retirement security of 47 million retirees,
Americans with disabilities, widows and children of whom a disproportionate
share are minorities. African Americans, Latinos, women and people with
disabilities tend to earn less and have smaller pensions than other
Americans, making them far more dependent on Social Security and far more
vulnerable to a risky privatization scheme.
* For many minorities Social Security is their only source of retirement
income, making privatization a reckless gamble. For 40% of older African
Americans and 38% of older Latinos, Social Security is their sole source of
income; without it, the poverty rate of retired African Americans and
Latinos would more than double.
* More than 7 million Americans depend on Social Security's disability
benefits, including 1.6 million children who have a parent with a
disability. Privatization would lead to devastating benefit cuts that would
hurt workers with disabilities and their families. Social Security provides
the only disability insurance that adjusts for inflation, is designed to
protect children who have a parent with a disability, and is available to
workers who have an existing disability or another health condition.
* One out of two women over the age of 65 - including more than
two-thirds of unmarried women - would slip into poverty without Social
Security. Social Security accounts for at least 90% of the income for
two-thirds of retirement age Hispanic women and three-quarters of African
American women without it, six out of ten African American and Hispanic
women would live in poverty. Women live longer than men and depend on Social
Security's guarantee of a lifetime benefit - tinkering with Social Security
would put these women at risk.
* 5.4 million children depend on Social Security benefits. For the
average working American family with two children, Social Security provides
the equivalent of a $350,000 disability insurance policy and a $400,000 life
insurance policy to protect their kids. These built-in safeguards are
especially critical for minority children. For example, while African
American kids make up only 12 percent of the population, 22% of children who
count on Social Security survivor benefits are African American.
Privatization would put all of our kids in danger.
* Social Security protects the working poor. Social Security's
progressive benefit structure provides the greatest assistance to low-wage
and part-time workers, who are more likely to be minorities, women and
Americans with disabilities. The president's privatization scheme would lead
to crippling benefit cuts and would push many low-income retirees into
poverty and debt.
Approved by the 216th General Assembly (2004)
The 216th General Assembly (2004) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
1. Reaffirms the importance of our nation s social insurance system,
specifically Social Security and Medicare that were enacted to promote the
general welfare, and to assure a guaranteed income and health care for the
workers of the United States.
2. Urges our nation s leaders to support and maintain the fundamental
structure and intent of Social Security, expressly that it continue to be
a. universal, covering all persons in paid employment and their families,
b. compulsory, requiring all working Americans to contribute to our
future security,
c. an earned right, based on contributions out of past earnings rather
than charity,
d. contributory and self-financed, out of dedicated taxes, e.g.
wage-related rather than means tested,
e. protected against inflation, by periodic, guaranteed, cost-of-living
adjustments, and
f. backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, rather than
depending on the erratic performance of the stock market or the
unpredictable financial stability and profit interests of a private company.
3. Requests the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, in concert
with the Office of Health Ministries U.S.A., to review the PC(USA) position
paper, Economic Security for Older Persons, approved by the 195th General
Assembly (1983), in order to update the changes in laws affecting mandatory
retirement, Social Security, and pension policies; and to reexamine the
interpretations of some of these policies. Request that the Advisory
Committee on Social Witness Policy, in concert with Office of Health
Ministries U.S.A., make a report of this review to the 217th General
Assembly (2006).
4. Disseminates this overture immediately to members of Congress, to the
president s administration, and to the media, synods, presbyteries, church
congregations, and individual Presbyterians.
5. Instructs the Office of the General Assembly to communicate
immediately with the National Council of Churches of Christ and with other
ecumenical partners to express concern of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
on issues surrounding our national insurance system; and inviting them to
participate in developing a shared position and action strategy to affect
public policy. Request that a report of these actions be made to the 217th
General Assembly (2006).
