Coalition on Human Needs

Tell Congress: Reject the DeMint-McCrery Social Security Plans!

A plan proposed recently by Senator DeMint and a similar plan presented by Rep. McCrery would create private accounts funded by the surplus taxes that will be paid into the Social Security system for the next 11 years. This might sound like a new type of plan for Social Security -- but it's still privatization.

The DeMint and McCrery plans don't improve solvency but actually siphon $1.1 trillion out of the Social Security trust funds over the first ten years (and $1.7 trillion over the first twenty years). In addition, the plan would increase the budget deficit by $89 billion in 2006 alone, and that's just the first year it's in effect

And remember, this is still the same old privatization: Your guaranteed Social Security benefits get cut, and in return you get a risky private account that may or may not pay out as well as you hope.

>>Learn More

September 02, 2010

Subject:

Dear

I urge you to oppose plans proposed by Senator DeMint and Representative McCrery to create private accounts funded by surplus taxes paid into Social Security. Those surplus taxes are needed to keep the program strong when the baby-boomers retire. This feature of Social Security was part of earlier reforms to keep the program solvent. Unlike those earlier reforms, Senator DeMint and Representative McCrery propose to weaken the program by siphoning $1.7 trillion out of Social Security in the first twenty years the plan is in effect. Further, the DeMint-McCrery plans cut the traditional, guaranteed benefits under the current program and partially replace those benefits with risky private accounts. These accounts can only be funded for 11 years while the program is in surplus -- even though an army of thousands of bureaucrats will need to administer the accounts after that 11-year window is over. In some cases a person who begins work at the end of that 11-year window might have an account of only $50 -- and the decades of administration will clearly cost more than that. Finally, because the Social Security trust funds would not be adequately compensated for the money taken out and because the difference would have to be made up with general revenues, federal budget deficits would increase drastically under these plans. The DeMint-McCrery plans would increase the budget deficit by $89 billion in 2006 alone, and that's just the first year it's in effect. I urge you to do what's right for Social Security and the Americans who depend on it, and oppose the DeMint-McCrery privatization plans.
We will add your signature from the information you provide.

First Name*

Last Name*

Email*

Street*

Street 2

City*

State/Province*

Zip/Postal Code*

Send an Email
Send a Fax