Printable Version
March 16, 2005
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
For Immediate Release |
SOCIAL SECURITY PETITION 'TRUTH TRUCK TOUR' DESTINED FOR LAWMAKERS' HOME DISTRICTS - Alliance for Retired Americans Launches Road Show Opposing Privatization
Washington, DC—The Alliance for Retired Americans today announced that starting next week, a flatbed truck carrying more than a million messages to Congress from seniors against privatizing Social Security will visit select Congressional districts as part of a tour called the Social Security Truth Truck Tour: 3000 Miles, 1 Million Voices.
The petition cargo is the centerpiece of the 16-stop, six-state road show which is expected to travel through the home districts of more than 20 members of Congress who the Alliance believes can be instrumental in saving Social Security. The tour begins March 21 in Florida and ends April 1 in Pennsylvania.
The truck tour will kickoff in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and then travel on to North Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania. At rallies in each state (see itinerary below), local Alliance leaders and seniors who signed the "Don't Privatize Social Security" petition will deliver to their Representatives' district offices the names of local petitioners. The petitions were collected by the Alliance as part of its campaign opposing Social Security privatization.
"Seniors simply can't trust anyone who says their benefits are safe under privatization," said George J. Kourpias, president of the Alliance, a nationwide grassroots organization representing more than 3 million seniors and retirees. "It's our job to counter what the president says, and if it means taking that message on the road, we'll do just that.
"Any plans to rip holes in a crucial safety net that keeps almost half of America's seniors out of poverty will have to face off against all the energies and political clout of the senior movement. We're fighting to save Social Security for ourselves and for our children and grandchildren."
The launch of the Alliance's Social Security Truth Truck Tour coincides with the recent admission by White House and Republican strategists that seniors are not only Social Security's "gatekeeper," but also the one group capable of derailing President Bush's campaign to privatize the 70-year-old government program. Older Americans, more so than any other age group are against private accounts, recent polls indicate. In addition, they are skeptical that their benefits would be protected if the system were privatized.
These sentiments and beliefs, coupled with fact that seniors exert great influence and play an outsized role in the general and Congressional elections, is not lost on the president or GOP strategists. The administration's 60-day campaign to promote private accounts is increasingly being tailored to 55+ audiences.
"The president didn't realize when he decided to invent the Social Security 'crisis' that he was actually creating a crisis of his own," Kourpias said. "He chose to focus his attentions on young Americans and tried to create a new notion of what retirement security should be about. What he didn't bargain for, or chose to ignore, was the reaction of seniors. They know, as most Americans today agree, that Social Security needs to be fixed. It needs to be strengthened so that it can pay the guaranteed benefits Americans earn and deserve for generations to come."
Kourpias added that Social Security's effect on reducing poverty among the country's elderly population is remarkable. He noted that the income provided by Social Security has helped nearly 13 million seniors 65 and older to live above the poverty line. Without Social Security, nearly half of America's elderly population - 46.8% - would be living below the poverty line. The federal poverty line is $9,060 for a single elderly person, or $11,411 for an elderly couple. Today, of the more than 47 million Americans who receive Social Security benefits, 33 million are seniors.
The truck tour will make stops in five of the states ranked in the top 10 states with the greatest number of Social Security recipients. The Alliance is planning additional Truth Truck tours in other parts of the country for later this year.
Itinerary for Social Security Truth Truck: 3000 Miles, 1 Million Voices:
March 21: Ft. Lauderdale
and Sarasota, Florida
March 22: Tampa and
Dade City, Florida
March 23: Greensboro,
North Carolina
March 24: Dayton, Ohio and
Indianapolis, Indiana
March 28: South
Bend, Indiana and Canton, Ohio
March
29: Pittsburgh and Erie, Pennsylvania
March 30: Rochester and Watertown, New
York
March 31: Syracuse, New York and
Wyomissing, Pennsylvania
April
1: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Details for each stop are available upon request.