Chicago, IL
The Social Security System is perhaps the federal government's most successful social policy achievement. In the 60 years since its establishment, it has reliably and efficiently provided income and health insurance benefits to the elderly and the disabled, helped millions Americans escape poverty, and given the elderly the financial means to live their last years with dignity and independence. It has lived up to its promise, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt expressed in signing the Social Security Act into law in 1935, "...we can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of live, but we have tried to...give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against a poverty-ridden old age."
Today, the Social Security System faces several new challenges. There are genuine -- but small -- long-term financing problems with the system which must be addressed in order to protect its solvency and its ability to provide the social insurance benefits upon which millions of Americans depend. There are also political threats from those who would discard Social Security's tremendously successful current structure, in favor of privatized, federally-mandated individual savings accounts. The proponents of privatization have used the system's long-term financing problems as a pretext for a wholesale dismantling of the federal government's most successful and popular social program.
The AFL-CIO rejects all attempts to dismantle the Social Security System and to exaggerate the extent of its long-term financing problems. The AFL-CIO supports the Social Security System's benefit structure, which returns a higher share of lowpaid workers' earnings int he form of benefits, but which pays higher benefits to those who have contributed more.
The AFL-CIO also supports the Social Security Systems current highly efficient administrative structure: Administrative costs are less than 0.7% of annual benefits, compared to administrative costs at private insurance companies that are, on average, 40% higher.
In developing a prudent response to the Social Security Trust Fund's long-term financing needs, the AFL-CIO will work to ensure that all Americans will be able to continue to rely upon Social Security, and will not be abandoned to the false promises of today's ideological privatizers.
The AFL-CIO will defend the Social Security System against the disinformation campaign currently being waged by Wall Street interests. We will work with allied organizations and individuals to educate Americans on the importance of preserving the primary source of retirement income security for average-wage earners.
We call on all unions to join in a coordinated campaign to educate Americans on the true value of Social Security and to discredit the false notion that private retirement accounts could match Social Security benefits. Specifically, we call on unions to include regular communication on Social Security in their publications, use educational material being developed by allied organizations to authenticate our message, and to encourage local leadership and activists to speak out publicly in defense of Social Security.