Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
AFL-CIO Calls for Across-the-Board Raise in Social Security Benefits
AFL-CIO Calls for Across-the-Board Raise in Social Security Benefits
by Donna Jablonski
March 14, 2012
America has a retirement security crisis—not a Social Security crisis, the AFL-CIO Executive Council said today in its annual winter meeting in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. And the answer is an across-the-board increase in Social Security benefits.
"Half of working Americans have no retirement plan at all at work. Most of those who have a retirement plan are in 401(k) savings accounts where the median balances are less than $30,000. Taking into account all sources of income, it is estimated that the gap between what working Americans need to maintain their standard of living in retirement and what they actually have is $6.6 trillion….Fewer and fewer workers are now covered by defined-benefit pension plans. Retirement savings have been decimated by losses in the stock market. Working families have lost trillions of dollars of home equity with the collapse of the real estate bubble. The stagnation of wages has made it harder for workers to save for retirement. And the inexorable rise of health care costs is taking a bigger and bigger bite out of retirement income."
If America were to craft a solution to the retirement crisis, it would have the same components as Social Security—shared responsibility, pooled resources, portability and security, for example. But instead of increasing Social Security benefits to meet the real needs of real working families, foes of Social Security are attempting to cut it and "have spent enormous amounts of money spreading misinformation about the program."
"The truth is that Social Security is not in crisis. It can pay all scheduled benefits through the year 2036 and three-quarters of all scheduled benefits thereafter. If Social Security were a pension plan, it would be in the “green zone”—the healthy zone—under the Pension Protection Act. Social Security does not contribute one dime to the deficit, it is legally prohibited from borrowing or going into debt and it is not a significant driver of long-term fiscal imbalances."
http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Economy/AFL-CIO-Calls-for-Across-the-Board-Raise-in-Social-Security-Benefits
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFL-CIO EXECUTIVE COUNCIL STATEMENT
March 14, 2012
Excerpt
While Social Security is an obvious solution to the crisis, its current benefit levels are too modest. Social Security’s income replacement rate is one of the lowest of all the industrialized countries. To compensate for the decline of traditional pensions and the loss of retirement savings, Social Security retirement benefits must be increased across the board, which would be especially meaningful for low-income seniors. In addition, Social Security COLAs need to take into account the higher health care costs faced by seniors. Finally, too many employers look for ways around making their contributions to Social Security through labeling their workers as independent contractors.
Needless to say, the Social Security debate in Washington, D.C., has not been centered on across-the-board benefit increases. On the contrary, it has focused almost exclusively on benefit cuts of various descriptions, which would only make the problem worse. The AFL-CIO has repeatedly stated our opposition to any reduction of benefits, such as an increase in the retirement age or a reduction in cost-of-living adjustments, regardless of who proposes them.
In fact, there is no justification whatsoever for benefit cuts. A number of plans put forward in recent years have demonstrated that cutting benefits is not necessary to close Social Security’s modest long-term funding shortfall. One thing all these plans have in common is they would all tax income above the existing taxable earnings cap, and this must be part of any solution. However, the AFL-CIO reaffirms its longstanding position that mandatory coverage of all public employees must not be part of any funding plan.
The reason why the debate in Washington, D.C., has gone so far in the wrong direction is that the enemies of Social Security have spent enormous amounts of money spreading misinformation about the program. The truth is that Social Security is not in crisis. It can pay all scheduled benefits through the year 2036 and three-quarters of all scheduled benefits thereafter. If Social Security were a pension plan, it would be in the “green zone”—the healthy zone—under the Pension Protection Act. Social Security does not contribute one dime to the deficit, it is legally prohibited from borrowing or going into debt and it is not a significant driver of long-term fiscal imbalances.
Read the fulll statement at:
http://www.aflcio.org/About/Exec-Council/EC-Statements/Building-On-The-Success-Of-Social-Security
15 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Statement from Richard Trumka:
http://www.aflcio.org/Press-Room/Press-Releases/Statement-by-Richard-Trumka-President-AFL-CIO-On-the-Endorsement-of-Barack-Obama-for-a-Second-Term-as-President
As president, Barack Obama has placed his faith in America’s working men and women to lead our country to economic recovery and to our full potential as a nation. With our endorsement today, we affirm our faith in him—and pledge to work with him through the election and his second term to restore fairness, security and shared prosperity.
The coming election is about values. President Obama honors the values of hard work, of mutual respect, and of solving problems together—not every person for himself or herself. He believes that together we will get through the most challenging economic crisis in memory and restore opportunity for all. Each of the Republican presidential candidates, on the other hand, has pledged to uphold the special privileges of Wall Street and the 1%--privileges that have produced historic economic inequality and drowned out the voices of working people in America.
President Obama took America from the brink of a second Great Depression by pressing Congress to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which saved or created 3.6 million jobs. He championed comprehensive health insurance reform, which -- while far from perfect -- set the nation on a path toward health security that had eluded our country for nearly 100 years. He insisted upon Wall Street reform—passed over the objection of almost every Republican—that is now beginning to reverse decades of financial deregulation that put our entire economy at risk.
Although the labor movement has sometimes differed with the president and often pushed his administration to do more and do it faster, we have never doubted his commitment to working families. He has worked hard to create good jobs; he has made the revival of the manufacturing sector a hallmark of his jobs agenda; he has moved aggressively to protect workers’ rights, pay and health and safety on the job; he has worked for a fair resolution of the housing crisis and he put his confidence and administration unequivocally behind the workers and companies in the American auto industry—a move that saved hundreds of thousands of jobs and is helping to revive the economy now and for the future.
President Obama has earned the support of working people for a second term and today the AFL-CIO voted proudly and enthusiastically to endorse him for a second term.
The labor movement is the original social network—a working class social network—and this year the unions of the AFL-CIO will be mobilizing working people to come together to organize our neighborhoods door to door, powered by cutting-edge technology and old-fashioned energy. We will be running an independent program rooted not in parties or candidates but in helping working people build power, making informed decisions about which candidates at every level to work for based on records and issues.
http://labor2012.aflcio.org/
Sid
