Social (In)Security

8/14/2019 Social (In)Security

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Speak Up Memo The Voice of Young Conservatives

THE WEEK OF MARCH 8, 2010

The OutrageUsed and forgotten. In 2008, young people gave Democrats their vote and in 2009Democrats showed young people the door. Well its time to tell the Democrats to stopand listen up. From health care to student loan reform, Democratic policies haveconsistently ignored the needs of our generation. !If we want change, 2010 must bedi" erent.!

What You Can Do About It Speak up! As a conservative we must begin to win hearts and minds before we can winelections. The process starts by educating people about what we truly believe. It starts with you in the classroom.!

When your friend tells you they voted for Obama, speak up. When you hear someonesaying that Republicans dont have the answers, speak up. If a professor lectures you onthe need for government health care, speak up.!

Well arm you with the facts you need to win the argument. Its your job to carry themessage on to your campus. Its your job to speak up! By engaging ourselves in thedebate, well spread the message of conservatism the message of small government,scal responsibility, and individual rights to one campus, one classroom, and onestudent at a time.

Over the next ve weeks the CRNC will be looking into the growing entitlements that left unreformed will doom this countrys scal future. We must realize that government isnot the solution to the problemit IS the problem.

This Weeks Theme: Social Security The Promise: If we care about Social Security, which I do, and if we are rm in our commitment to make sure that its going to be there for the next generation, and not just for our generation, then we have an obligation to gure out how to stabilize the system. Ithink we should be honest in presenting our ideas in terms of how were going to do that

A weekly publication by the College Republican National Committee. Copyright 2010.


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and not just say that were going to form a commission and try to solve the problem someother way. Philadelphia Primary Debate Apr, 16 2008

The Reality: Barack Obamas only commitment has been to continually ignore the

problem. His recently released budget, which totals $8.5 trillion over the next decade,does nothing to alter the bleak scal picture of Social Security. Even worse, it trivializesthe problem by proposing a $250 one-time payment to Social Security recipients to helpseniors who arent receiving their cost-of-living boost because of the poor economy. 250bucks? Really? Thats his long term plan?

Fact 1: The Status Quo is Unsustainable

Social Security was created in 1935 in an e" ort to protect workers from falling into poverty during their senior years. Unfortunately, there is no program to prevent Social Security from falling into poverty as it grows older. A report produced by the Social Security Trustees shows that the program has promised more benets than it can a " ord to pay. The result: Social Security will begin to run decits in 2017, a mere 7 years from now, andits funds will be exhausted by 2041. To give you a sense of the pure scope of its failings:between today and 2075, the ination adjusted shortfall is projected to reach $20 trillion.

Yes, you read that correctly$20 trillion. Since the founding of this nation, thegovernment, with all of its wars, entitlements, and programs has only managed to amass a $12 trillion dollar debt. But Social Security alone will nearly double 234 years worth of our

nations spending.

Fact 2: The Government Isnt Following Its Own Rules

There are numerous reasons for the grip future of Social Security, not the least of which isdemographic changes . But baby boomers have become the scapegoat for thegovernments lack of foresight and misrepresentations. Put simply Congress lied to the American people. In the original rules, set up by the 1935 Social Security Act, each wageearner paid into a personal account from which their retirement benets would later come. Somewhere along the line those rules got tossed by the wayside, without so muchas a word to the workers a " ected. As Congressman Ron Paul explained,

Social Security contributions are supposed to be set aside fromgeneral revenues and placed in a trust fund. ! The truth, of course, isthat your contributions are not put aside. Over the decadesCongress found itself simply unable to sit on a big pile of money, so

http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2006/tst100906.htmhttp://www.heritage.org/Research/SocialSecurity/BG1194.cfmhttp://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2006/tst100906.htmhttp://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2006/tst100906.htmhttp://www.heritage.org/research/features/BudgetChartBook/Images/entitlements_02-580.jpghttp://www.heritage.org/research/features/BudgetChartBook/Images/entitlements_02-580.jpghttp://www.heritage.org/Research/SocialSecurity/BG1194.cfmhttp://www.heritage.org/Research/SocialSecurity/BG1194.cfmhttp://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/TR08/tr08.pdfhttp://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/TR08/tr08.pdf


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it began treating Social Security contributions as general revenuesto fund the ever-growing federal government. ! Today your SocialSecurity account is nothing more than a ledger lled with IOUs.

Fact 3: Our Generation is Resigned to Failure

Guess who has to pay those IOUs Ron Paul talked about. Thats rightour generation which goes a long way toward explaining why a recent Zogby poll shows we are rather pessimistic when it comes to Social Securities future:

O erall 18-29 30-49 50-64 65+

You Your

Children

You Your

Children

You Your

Children

You Your

Children

You Your

Children

Yes 42 18 18 23 23 10 62 18 89 29No 35 54 62 63 47 67 16 45 4 26

Not

Sure

22 29 21 14 30 23 22 37 8 45

The only person not willing to admit there is a problem is Harry Reid, who when faced with the Trustees report that showed Social Security beginning to run decits in lessthan a decade, stated ,

Todays report conrms that the so-called Social Security crisis exists in

only one place the minds of Republicans. In reality, the program is onsolid ground for decades to come.

Bottom Line: Although Harry Reid wont admit it, weve caught on. Social Security represents yet another example of a government program failing due to mismanagement and lack of foresight. In this case, it has likely cost our generation its ability to retire with a sense of nancial stability. The risks of having the government involved in health care areeven higher where bankruptcy puts lives at risk.

http://www.karlloren.com/healthinsurance/p41.htmhttp://www.karlloren.com/healthinsurance/p41.htmhttp://www.karlloren.com/healthinsurance/p41.htm

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Social (In)Security