Town hall meetings this week on Social Security

[texastoast]

From MoveOn.org

Members of Congress will have meetings like this nationwide. MoveOn.org is organizing thousands of people to show up and talk about the need to protect Social Security from benefit cuts. If enough of us come, Bush's whole plan could die here.

I hope you'll come! Sign up at:

http://action.moveon.org/socialsecurity/selectmtg.html?zip=77381&distance=30

Some of my concerns are:

1. What will make Mr. Bush's plan different from the Thatcher experiment in the U.K.? (As much as 30% was charged for management of fees and charges, resulting in no modest earnings at all.) An interviewee on Thursday's BBC World Report said, "The promises of great returns amounted to nothing. We got about 80% of what we put in. We would have been better off putting our money under our mattress."

2. Can people my age opt out of privatization completely, as was recommended by many U.K. insurance companies to their customers in 2002?

3. What type of recourse does someone forced into privatization have against a poorly performing fund?

4. What type of funds will be offered? What are their historical earnings?

5. What are national economic options to the alleged "Social Security will be broke by 2042" spiel that Mr. Bush is touting? Why can't we keep Social Security as is and make plans for Social Security NOT going broke in 2042? How would government spending have to change to achieve that?

I thought you might have additional talking points (PLEASE LIST THEM HERE) or might have some rebuttal for your repuke congressperson's pat answers to the above or his/her anticipated "pro-Bush" presentation of the subject. I've listed some websites for further reading.

http://www.socsec.org/publications.asp?pubid=503

http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=8997

http://democrats.senate.gov/ss/calc.html#

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=39258

http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=5530&sequence=0


:kick: :toast:

[Kashka-Kat]

1. sounds good

thanx for the info, usually get all the moveon stuff, don't know why I didnt get this one--did they send anything?

Anyway, in response to your #5 "how govt spending would have to change,"-- actually, its my understanding that the shortfall (caused by yrs of borrowing from ss fund and putting into general fund) can be restored simply by not implementing a portion (~1/3) of Bush's proposed FUTURE tax cuts!!! The Bush scamsters are twisting it around to sound like this would be a "tax increase". "Not implementing a portion of the future tax cut" is NOT the same as a "tax increase"! It just needs to be allowed to work as it was intended to work, with the surplus accumulating to cover future shortfalls. Therefore, the fix is simply to pay back from the gen fund the surplus which was "borrowed."

I just hope the democrats can get together some kind of clear concise message about this. I remember when Al Gore was campaigning he had very clear and understandable message about preserving social security. Has anyone out there seen any good analysis or alternate plan they can recommend?

we really do need to be actively fighting this thing and not sit back & assume its so bad, it cant happen. It doesn't mean anything to me that so few people right now support Bush's plan. After all only 25% supported attacking Iraq before the propaganda machine got revved up and he went ahead and attacked anyway. These people are ruthless and master manipulators.

[texastoast]

3. Find out if your representative is going to have a meeting

That is what the MoveOn email was about. I called my rep's office, but no one knew whether he was having a meeting (they had to check and call me back--never got that call, and the rep had scheduled a meeting. Typical repuke inefficiency). I went to the MoveOn site and found that someone had already posted at MoveOn about my rep's meeting, so I registered that I would be attending.

I clicked on the link below, searched my stuff, and then found my meeting to register for. If your rep is not having a meeting, you can attend one close by perhaps.

http://action.moveon.org/socialsecurity/

[liveoaktx]

2. about attending....

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_02_13.php

SHOW UP!

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito's (R) message for (pro-Social Security) West Virginians about her Social Security townhall meetings next week: "I will describe the problem, but I'm not going to be advocating for any particular solution. If I go to all these town meetings and it's a stampede against reform, I'll have to factor that into my thinking."

[DemBones DemBones]

4. Thanks for the info! I guess I will need to call

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), Sen. Saxby Shameless (R-GA), and Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) and ask why none of them are having a meeting with constituents.

:grr:

[texastoast]

5. Kick

:kick: