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Social Security |
More on Social Security:
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Saving Social Security
[7-8-05]
Here’s a clear-eyed look at the Social Security
issue, by a writer who offers some simple "truth-telling," some critical
reflection on the values at stake (and at the way most of the arguments for
privatization are essentially materialistic and self-centered), and some
common-sense reforms that would help greatly.
It was published in the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer , but you can read it on
AlterNet or on
TruthOut.org |
| Privatizing Social
Security Call to Renewal offers a helpful update on
discussions of Social Security privatization – including revised estimates
of its costs and its risks, and its negative impact on those with lower
incomes. They include links to
other good resources. [6-30-05] |
| Social Security goes to Congress As
Congress begins to deal with the issues surrounding Social Security, we
offer some resources you may find helpful [5-5-05]
 | Religious leaders defend Social Security
PC(USA), 15 other groups issue set of guidelines for reform
The Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) and 15 other national religious organizations have issued a set
of "principles" for Congress to keep in mind as it decides how to preserve
and strengthen Social Security.
The news report >>
The full text of the statement >>
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| "Honor your
father and mother ..." Jim Wallis of
Sojourners takes that as a theme for an open letter to Congress on
behalf of Call to Renewal, outlining a moral perspective from which Social
Security should be discussed.
PS – We know the headline is not original with Wallis.
Or us. But it still makes great sense as it reminds us of the
intergenerational responsibilities that we must not ignore.
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Surprise! The rich pay less!
The organization United for a Fair Economy
points to the great inequity in the real Social Security tax rates for
average works compared with the wealthy.
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| A Gut Punch to the Middle (class)
That’s what New York Times columnist Paul Krugman calls the President’s current proposals
for "fixing" Social Security.
More >> |
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| Not Just a Retirement Program:
Social Security Is a Civil Rights
Issue A broad coalition of civil rights
organization is launching an effort to protect Social Security and stop the
President's "high risk privatization gamble."
Along with their press release we're posting the
2004 Presbyterian
General Assembly policy, "On Reaffirming the Importance of Our Nation s
Social Insurance System (Social Security and Medicare)."
[4-25-05] |
It's not Social Security
that's in crisis. It's the health care system!
[4-13-05]New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has pointed out
recently that our nation’s real crisis lies not in the area of Social
Security, or even Medicare, but the whole health care system.
Read this in the Times, or in the
Minneapolis
Star Tribune.
A new Health Care Bulletin from the
Presbyterian Washington Office, provides a very helpful survey of this
crisis, with a focus on current budget discussions in Congress, and on
efforts to slash funding for Medicare.
The bulletin includes a list of how Senators voted on the Smith-Bingaman
amendment to remove the Medicaid cuts from the Senate Budget Resolution.
They provide suggestions for letters to convey concerns to members of
Congress, along with a 1999 General Assembly policy statement on managed
health care, and a letter to the President and members of Congress from the
Washington Interreligious Staff Community Health Care Working Group. |
| Social Security & Social Justice
[2-5-05]
As the debate over the future of Social Security grows
more urgent, we offer some resources from the Presbyterian Church and other
sources.
If you have other material that would be helpful, or
comments of your own,
please send a
note to be shared here.
PC(USA):
resources on
Social Security & Social Justice
The PC(USA) web site has a very helpful page indexing
denominational and other resources, including statements of the Bush
administration's "the sky is falling" point of view, and the contrary
assertion that "it's just rain!" Beyond that, they link to church statements
and other explorations of the issue. The whole thing is provided by the
Presbyterian Hunger Program. [2-5-05]
PC(USA) actions
The 216th General Assembly approved a resolution "reaffirming
the importance of our nation's social insurance system Social Security and
Medicare."
The text is on our
website, or you can read it in PDF format
on the
PC(USA) website.
Stated Clerk Clifton
Kirkpatrick sent this resolution to all congregations last September,
with a helpful cover letter, underscoring the resolution's emphasis
"that Medicare and Social Security were enacted to promote the general
welfare, and to assure a guaranteed income and health care for the workers
of the United States."
You can also
read the full text of the overture which proposed this resolution,
with its supporting rationales. NOTE: If this link
doesn't take you directly to the document, but to an index page, just type
"Social Security" in the search box at the top of the page, and the
documents for
Item 10-10 -- Overture 04-67 should be at the top of the list.
OR just click on the link just above. Your webweaver doesn't know
why, but that may work too.
An AFL-CIO perspective on the
Social Security debate
The "Working Families
e-Activist Network," a program of the AFL-CIO, has distributed an analysis
of what they see as "the high price working families would pay for
privatization - in benefit cuts, new government debt and the potential
Enron-ization of America's most successful family protection program."
[2-5-05]
Privatizing Social Security: 'Me' Over 'We'
Benjamin R. Barber, professor of political science at the
University of Maryland and the author of Jihad vs. McWorld,
comments in the LA Times on the current campaign by the President for the
privatization of Social Security. He says, "... the most profound cost of
privatizing Social Security has been wholly ignored: the systemic cost to
our public way of life. By turning part of a public social insurance and
pension policy into a private bet in which where personal and private
decisions determine who does well and who does badly, we do irreparable harm
to our democratic 'common ground.' " [1-27-05]
Privatizing Social Security - three large flaws
The L. A. Times argues in an editorial today that
"President Bush's notion -- it is not yet a plan -- of partly privatizing
Social Security has three large flaws. First, it is a cure in search of a
disease. Second, it is a cure that won't work. And third, it is a cure that
requires the disease to be gone before the cure can start." This essay deals
primarily with the third flaw, but summarizes the other two as well.
[1-24-05]
Taking a wider view ...
The Inaugural
Address and the Sermon on the Mount
The Rev. Jake Young considers the President's
Inaugural Address and the values proclaimed by Jesus in the Sermon on the
Mount. He finds ... well ... some tensions between them.
[1-24-05]
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Visit
our lively
new website! |
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GA actions
ratified (or not) by the presbyteries
A number of the most important actions of the 219th
General Assembly have now been acted upon by the presbyteries,
confirming most of them as amendments to the PC(USA) Book of Order.
We provided resources to help inform the
reflection and debate, along with updates on the voting.
Our three areas of primary interest have been:
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Amendment 10-A,
which removes the current ban on
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender persons being considered as
possible candidates for ordination as elder or ministers.
Approved! |
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Amendment 10-2,
which would add the Belhar Confession to our Book of
Confessions. Disapproved, because as an amendment
to the Book of Confessions it needed a 2/3 vote, and did not
receive that. |
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Amendment
10-1, which adopts the new Form of Government
that was approved by the Assembly. Approved. |
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Some blogs worth visiting |
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PVJ's
Facebook page
Mitch Trigger, PVJ's
Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where
Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and
views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both
personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!
You can post your own news and views,
or initiate a conversation about a topic of interest to you. |
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Voices of Sophia blog
Heather Reichgott, who has created
this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:
After fifteen years of scholarship
and activism, Voices of Sophia presents a blog. Here, we present the
voices of feminist theologians of all stripes: scholars, clergy,
students, exiles, missionaries, workers, thinkers, artists, lovers
and devotees, from many parts of the world, all children of the God
in whose image women are made. .... This blog seeks to glorify God
through prayer, work, art, and intellectual reflection. Through
articles and ensuing discussion we hope to become an active and
thoughtful community. |
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John Harris’ Summit to
Shore blogspot
Theological and philosophical
reflections on everything between summit to shore, including
kayaking, climbing, religion, spirituality, philosophy, theology,
politics, culture, travel, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), New
York City and the Queens neighborhood of Ridgewood by a progressive
New York City Presbyterian Pastor. John is a former member of the
Witherspoon board, and is designated pastor of North Presbyterian
Church in Flushing, NY. |
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John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive
A Presbyterian minister, currently
serving as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton,
Tenn., blogs about spirituality, culture, religion (both organized
and disorganized), life, evolution, literature, Jesus, and
lightening up. |
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Got more blogs to recommend?
Please
send a note, and we'll see what we can do! |
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