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That was the message of concern brought to Toledo August 29,
2011 by LeRoy Aragón, a Grassroots Consultant for the
Washington, D.C.-based National Committee to Preserve Social
Security and Medicare (NCPSSM.)
Although it was a non-partisan presentation, Aragón and Sam
Burnett, the Toledo-based State Advocate Representative of
the NCPSSM, made it clear that vigilance is needed to protect
the 55-million people who depend upon Social Security and
receive checks against the onslaught of Tea Party supporters
seeking to emasculate and erode the program.
An attentive audience of 50 attended the bilingual (English and
Spanish) presentation at the Mayores Senior Center,
Toledo, sponsored by the Center in cooperation with SS Peter
& Paul Church, the Neighborhood Health Association,
and NCPSSM.
Father Juan Molina
of SS Peter & Paul delivered the invocation. Among those in the
audience were: Betty Rios, Community Outreach Coordinator
for Lucas County Job and Family Services, Lourdes Santiago,
former Toledo Councilmember and now a judicial candidate for
election to Toledo Municipal Court, and Cesario Duran,
longtime community activist for the Farm Labor
Organizing Committee (FLOC).
Introduced during the administration of President Franklin D.
Roosevelt as part of the New Deal in 1937, Social Security
has been a favorite target of right-wingers seeking to dismantle
the program ever since its inception. But the threats and
proposals to gut the program and its safety-nets have never been
as pronounced or dangerous as they are today.
As Aragón stressed, if the program is changed, it will have a
major effect upon Latinos.
Certainly any change made will affect many people. Consider
these figures:
·
Seventy-five percent of the 55 million recipients of Social
Security depend upon it for at least one-half of their income.
·
For one-third of those 55 million US-Americans, Social Security
is their only income in retirement.
Any change made in Social Security will have a major impact upon
the lives of these US-Americans.
One of the myths being propagated by Tea Party
reactionaries is that Social Security is “running out of money”—this
is a fabrication. Aragón, a native of New Mexico, flatly
stated “Social Security is not in any kind of financial crisis.
The program is not running out of money. It has $2.6 trillion
in its fund, and by 2023 they are projecting that amount will
rise to $4.3 trillion.
“Why is it going up? Because it earns interest when it is
invested in Treasury Bonds, which pay four to six percent
interest,” explained Aragón.
Citing the last trustee’s report issued by the Social
Security Administration (SSA), Aragón said the non-profit
agency earned $112 million in interest, all of which was plowed
back into the SSA.
However, although Social Security is well-funded, sometime in
the future, Aragón said it could be 2036, 2042 or 2052 when
those accumulated funds will be gone because they will have been
used to pay benefits.
171 million US-American workers currently pay into the program
through their FICA taxes which pays for 78 percent of Social
Security’s obligations. But the administration is concerned
about the 22 percent shortfall in thirty years. That’s why the
most solid proposals to remedy the impending situation revolve
around raising the amount of money paid into FICA.
Currently, those who earn more than $106,800 stop making FICA
payments. Aragón pointed out the necessity for raising that
ceiling so that everyone would pay their full share into the
program. Only 80 percent of wage earners now pay into Social
Security, but if it were increased to 90 percent, it would
alleviate many future problems.
“Raising that ceiling would be one of the toughest things we can
do because no one wants to pay more taxes,” said Aragón.
But Teapublicans also have another bad idea up their
sleeves – privatizing Social Security. That means moving
money from Social Security and putting it into the private
sector and private business. And as Aragón was quick to remind
the audience, “The worst case scenario is putting it into the
stock market. That’s a risky thing to do. You might earn more
but you might lose it too.”
He underscored that point by pointing out the vast number of
US-Americans who saw their “401(k), pension or IRA go down the
drain” during Wall Street’s recent turmoil.
“Raising money on the stock market is like putting it into a
slot machine. It can be very costly. We’ve seen what happened in
other parts of the world like Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and
Great Britain when they privatized their programs. Under
privatization programs such as these, the cost for an
administrator averages 25 to 30 percent. Using FICA and
our system, our total cost for administration is only one
percent,” said Aragón.
Also, remember the Wall Street Disaster of 2008, which
led to the current Great Recession.
Impact on Latinos
However, Aragón made some of his strongest points when he
discussed how Social Security impacts the Latino community in
the United States.
“Latinos depend upon Social Security to a larger degree than the
general population. That’s because they have traditionally
earned less and do not have pensions, mainly because so many
Latinos have jobs involving manual labor.
“Seventy-four percent of Latinos have Social Security as half of
their retirement income. And for 44 percent of Latinos, Social
Security is the only income they have,” Aragón told the
audience.
“Latinos generally, as other minority groups, have a higher
instance of disability. That’s because they are not working in
air conditioned offices. They are vulnerable to many chronic
illnesses which result in disabilities such as diabetes and
heart problems. And conversely live longer and tend to have
bigger families. Whereas the average for white families is 2.3
individuals, for Latinos it is four. That makes the family
aspect of Social Security more important,” said Aragón.
Another Teapublican myth debunked by Aragón was that
undocumented immigrants in the United States were a drain on
Social Security. This is false—facts show that they
contribute more than 9-billion dollars to Social Security every
year. However, Aragón stated that the contributions paid to
Social Security by undocumented workers can be claimed by them
once they certify that they have become legal residents.
Some audience members had questions regarding eligibility for
receiving disability payments as well as survivor benefits.
Others were concerned about the changes in age to qualify for
Social Security benefits when an individual reaches retirement
age.
The answers to those questions can be found by visiting
www.socialsecurity.gov |
