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Friday Alert
Friday, August 15, 2008(Alliance for Retired Americans)
Social Security Celebrates 73rd
Birthday, Alliance Fights for 73
More
From Oregon to Florida, the
Alliance celebrated Social Security’s 73rd
birthday with 25 grassroots events lauding the
program that has kept millions of Americans out
of poverty and by promising to continue
fighting privatization efforts. On August
14, 1935, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt signed the Social Security
Act into law as a “measure of protection to the
average citizen and to his family against the
loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old
age.” Yet, on July 7, Senator
John McCain (R-AZ) said,
“Americans have got to understand that we are
paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid
by young workers in America today. And
that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace,
and it's got to be fixed.” Alliance
members protested these comments outside
Republican headquarters and McCain offices in
Raleigh, North Carolina, Portland, Oregon and
Phoenix, Arizona, and asked Senators
John Sununu (R-NH) and
Gordon Smith (R-OR) to
denounce their colleague’s comments in
Manchester, New Hampshire and Salem, Oregon,
respectively. The Senator was also
shadowed by the Alliance on his visits to York,
Pennsylvania and Aspen, Colorado this
week. Additionally, birthday cakes and
cards were presented with thanks to Social
Security Administration offices in Green Bay,
Madison, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Morgantown,
West Virginia; Raleigh and Winston-Salem, North
Carolina; Tallahassee, Port St. Lucie, Lake
Mary, and Valrico, Florida; Albuquerque, New
Mexico; Reading, Pennsylvania; Tyler, Texas;
and Montpelier, Vermont. More events are
planned through next week.
“We are reminding retirees that Senator McCain continues to support President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security. This would create Social Security accounts tied to the roller coaster of Wall Street. With all the turbulence in the stock market, this is a gamble few retirees can afford to take,” said Edward F. Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance, in a press conference organized by Americans United for Change. Also speaking in support of Social Security during the press conference were U.S. Reps. Jan Schakowsky (IL-9), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20), AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, and James Roosevelt Jr., grandson of FDR. Mr. Coyle additionally lauded “one of our nation’s greatest success stories” on “The Race,” live Wednesday night on XM satellite radio’s Presidential Politics Channel and on “Special Report with Brit Hume” on Fox News yesterday. Today, Alliance President George J. Kourpias speaks to the A. Philip Randolph Institute in Jacksonville, Florida about Social Security and other issues.
New Report Debunks Conventional
Wisdom on the Cost of Retirement Plans
A new report by the National Institute on
Retirement Security found that defined benefit
(DB) pension plans are more cost-efficient for
employees and employers than Defined
Contribution (DC) accounts. The study, “A
Better Bang for the Buck: The Economic
Efficiencies of Defined Benefit Pension Plans,”
was published on Thursday by the National
Institute on Retirement Security, a new pension
defense group. According to the report,
DB plans can provide the same retirement income
at nearly half the cost of individual
401(k)-type Defined Contribution (DC) accounts
– 46 percent less. DB plans are designed
to provide employees with a predictable monthly
benefit in retirement. With a DC plan,
however, determining whether it will be
sufficient to cover a retiree’s needs depends
on factors such as employee and employer
contributions and the level of returns on
assets. While DC plans are important to
the retirement security equation, they were not
designed to stand on their own. Certain
built-in features make DB plans the most
fiscally efficient way to provide retirement
income: they avoid over-saving, are ageless,
and achieve higher investment returns.
The report concludes that DB plans should
remain a centerpiece of retirement income
policy and practice, especially in light of
current fiscal and economic constraints facing
corporate and government retirement plan
sponsors. “It is important for employees
to continue to fight for defined benefit
plans,” said George Kourpias. The report
is available at www.retiredamericans.org/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/id/7701
.
Widespread Nursing Home Evictions
Put Patients at Risk
Despite the
industry’s claims that evictions are uncommon,
nursing homes across the nation are
increasingly forcing out frail and ill
residents. According to The Wall
Street Journal, formal complaints about
discharge practices have doubled over a decade,
to 8,500 nationally in 2006. In Iowa,
involuntary discharges have risen even as the
number of nursing-home beds has declined. And
in Washington, D.C., roughly 1 in 7 evictions
are contested as improper. Officials in
more than a dozen other states have expressed
concern, arguing that facilities surpass legal
boundaries in seeking to evict those who are
merely inconvenient or too costly. While
residents with dementia or demanding families
are often evicted, those who depend on Medicaid
to pay their bills are often the most
vulnerable. The problem largely boils
down to money: residents on Medicaid pay
facilities as little as half of those who pay
out-of-pocket, with private health insurance,
or through Medicare. “It is inexcusable
and unlawful for nursing homes to evict
residents for these reasons,” said
Ruben Burks,
Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance for Retired
Americans. “Officials must step in to
protect patients, particularly those on
Medicaid.”
Texas Alliance Elects New
President
Annie M.
Banks, a retired Houston special
education teacher, has been elected president
of the Texas Alliance (TARA). As the new
president, Banks has pledged to expand TARA’s
efforts to educate and mobilize Texas retirees
on local, state, and federal issues. “It
is getting harder than ever to be a retiree, as
the cost of gas, groceries, and health care
continues to skyrocket. It saddens me to
hear my friends and neighbors talk about how
tough it is to get by, but it also reminds me
of why we have no choice but to be politically
savvy seniors,” she said. Ms. Banks is
widely respected for her outreach to community
groups and her success in building effective
coalitions.
Did You Know…
In 2007,
Sen. John McCain voted in line
with President Bush’s position
95% of the time (Congressional
Quarterly).