Q: Senior citizens are a powerful voting bloc. If we want our elected officials to act responsibly to protect Social Security and Medicare, our mandate must include legislation to prevent the misuse of these funds for war or tax relief to the wealthy or any other purpose other than that for which it was created. Our Trust Funds were created for the benefit of present and future retirees and the physically disabled. Our own government should not be allowed to treat us with contempt by stealing money meant for our support and to which most of us have made contributions during our life time.—P.B.
A: The 2004 election will be a critical one for seniors and those nearing retirement. The federal budget deficit is projected at record highs over the next 10 years. The government is feeling increasing strain to provide promised benefits as cash revenues dwindle. Influential members of the government are calling on Congress and President Bush to make federal retirement programs more sustainable by cutting benefits. In addition, each year greater numbers of seniors are seeing more of their Social Security benefits taxed.
Despite years of warning, Congress has no plan that would shore up the finances of Social Security and other government trust funds. To the contrary, when excess Social Security, Medicare, military or civil service retirement trust fund revenues are received, the government issues an IOU and promptly spends the money in other areas or to afford tax cuts. The government also issues IOUs to account for the “interest” earned by those trust funds. In fiscal year 2003, the IOUs in the four trust funds earned $150 billion in “interest” — all paid with more IOUs.
In addition, new Medicare legislation recently added hundreds of billions in new spending to Medicare but expressly forbade cost controls that would allow the government to negotiate lower prices. Proposals are also under study that could add millions of immigrants, including some who worked here illegally, to the Social Security rolls and thus hasten the insolvency further.
Early this year, TSCL became the first seniors’ organization in the nation to back legislation introduced by Representative Gene Taylor (D-MS) that would introduce a Constitutional amendment to exclude the Social Security, Medicare, military and civil service retirement trust funds from the annual budget deficit. A Constitutional amendment is necessary because, in the past, legislative provisions to keep the Trust Funds “off budget” have been routinely ignored or waived by Congress.
The amendment would be the first step in the protection of our nation’s retirement trust funds by requiring more honest accounting of the deficit that is accruing in our nation’s retirement trust funds. Congress could then consider more adequate and realistic solutions to address the shortfalls and act in a more timely fashion. TSCL urges you to ask your Member in the House to support H.J. Res. 88 that would lock your retirement trust funds off budget.
May 2004
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