AFGE Calls Social Security Trustees Irresponsible

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http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-23-2005/0003243240&EDATE=

I believe John Gage was the man who testified before the Dem hearing on Social Security last month. AFGE also called for Dr. Thomas Saving to step down due to his conflict of interest Thomas Saving conflict

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Today's news conference continues the disturbing trend within the Social Security Administration (SSA) to employ the use of irresponsible rhetoric to scare the American public about the future of Social Security. It seems as though the trustees did not bother to look over the latest projections, which show the outlook for Social Security holding more or less steady following the strong gains made in recent reports. The trustees speak of certain doom even though their own report shows three divergent scenarios and despite the fact that, obviously, the future cannot be known.
As a former SSA employee who worked for the agency for nearly 30 years, I understand the harm that could be done by playing politics. It is the job of SSA to provide service to the millions of Americans who depend on Social Security for their retirement, disability and survivor benefits. Yet the current board of trustees is violating the long standing tradition that SSA remain neutral in political debates.
No one should be surprised by what we are hearing from the trustees considering the administration's 60/60 tour, the involvement of SSA Deputy Commissioner James Lockhart in the town hall meeting road show, and the alignment of public trustee Thomas Savings with the pro-privatization group Progress for America. Because of this conflict of interest, AFGE has called upon Savings to resign. American taxpayers should not tolerate information that is misrepresented and the ethically questionable.

The American Federation of Government Employees is the largest federal employee union, representing 600,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia. AFGE's National Social Security Council, officially known as the National Council of SSA Field Operations Locals (Council 220), represents the 28,000 employees of the Social Security Administration who work in field offices and teleservice (1-800) centers.
In January, members of the Council made public information demonstrating a concerted effort to enroll career employees of SSA in a public relations campaign to hype concerns about solvency and promote the idea that private accounts must be a part of reform.