From the Presbyterian Washington Office:

Below please find information about a new civil rights coalition formed to protect Social Security. Below the article please find 2004 Presbyterian General Assembly policy, "On Reaffirming the Importance of Our Nation s Social Insurance System (Social Security and Medicare)."

[4-25-05]

Civil rights coalition launches fight to protect Social Security and stop President's high risk privatization gamble

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).