Banks,
pundits, financial “experts,” and politicians who do their
bidding are predictably warning us about the impending demise
of Social Security in about 21 years and they have been
hammering us with the same warning, year after year, every
time the trustees of the system release their regular report.
In
so many ways, it is their method of softening up the American
people for cuts to the program, at some future time, of
course. Right now, in the beginnings of a presidential campaign,
everyone is treading lightly around the issue, and they
do not say they want to cut Social Security benefits. Rather,
they just want to make judicious cuts to Medicaid and Medicare.
Politicians
feel secure about threatening cuts to Medicaid, because
that’s a program that provides some health care to the poor,
who would not have any access to health care without it
(except for hospital emergency rooms, which George W. Bush
proclaimed was our American equivalent of “universal health
care”). Anyway, the poor don’t vote, so there is no penalty
for cutting their benefits. As for Medicare, politicians
feel safe about suggesting cuts in that program, because
they depend on the propaganda that has been aimed at older
Americans, that finding a good health insurance company
(an oxymoron?) is far preferable to having a government
program.
The
same George Bush, when he occupied the White House, made
an attempt to convince the Congress that having workers
divert some of their Social Security deductions from their
paychecks into their own “private retirement accounts” was
a good idea. When the recent economic collapse came, people
looked at their Social Security checks and breathed a sigh
of relief that they did not have such private retirement
accounts in the market. Millions saw their private accounts
plummet, with some losing about half of their retirement
savings. The brilliance of the Social Security system shone
in the minds of most who made the comparison of the two
visions, and Bush’s plan was put back into the box in which
the right keeps its ideas, ready to be pulled out at some
opportune moment.
Trustees
of the system recently released their latest report and
the same predictions have been all over the news, broadcast
and print, warning us of the impending disaster. Especially
vociferous are the right wing pundits on cable and the “business
press,” who would love to get their hands on just a portion
of the funds that provide benefits to 55 million Americans.
Imagine the profits on just 10 percent of that amount.
One
observer has departed from the usual doomsday threat. Michael
Hiltzik, financial reporter for the Los Angeles Times,
who, noting the 55 million who receive benefits and that
Social Security keeps 20 million of them out of poverty,
suggested that benefits be increased, not decreased.
He
wrote at the end of April: “…. And it points to the best
way to improve Social Security’s value for all Americans:
by increasing benefits to better serve the neediest workers,
and expanding its reach to cover workers and dependents
who have been cheated by or excluded from the system for
far too long. Yes, you heard me right. It’s time to shut
down the talk of cutting benefits, which serves nobody,
and pump up the volume on making them better. The idea has
been around for years, but its supporters have been hunkered
down against a conservative campaign to cut, cut, and cut.
It’s emerging from its foxhole now because the long recession and two stock
market crashes have put the final bullets into the hopes
of millions of Americans for a secure retirement…”
It
makes eminent sense. Nearly 20 years ago, when there was
a debate raging over an increase in the minimum wage in
New York, right
wingers hauled out the usual arguments against it: there
would be a loss of jobs, there would not be as many job
opportunities, small businesses would be harmed, the economy
would suffer. And, all of this was in light of surveys and
studies over many years that showed that all of this was
nonsense. What a quick calculation did show at the time
was that there were three major “industries” in New
York, agriculture, health care, and tourism. A modest increase
in the minimum wage at that time would have put as much
money into the state’s economy as any of the three major
industries.
Of
course, by now, that has changed and the total amounts of
economic activity of the three “industries” has greatly
increased, but the principle is the same. Today, there is
another debate on a modest increase in the minimum wage
in New York and the same old arguments against it have been raised by
most of the business community and the right wing. (We’re
not forgetting New
York’s “financial industry” and the vast amounts of money
involved, it’s just that we’re concentrating here on industries
that actually produce something.)
Simply
put, a raise of about $1.50 in the minimum wage in New
York would raise billions of dollars for the entire economy,
and that’s what the proponents of increasing benefits to
those on Social Security have in mind. Instead of constantly
talking about reducing benefits for those who are going
to be collecting benefits soon, they should be talking about
raising the minimums, especially for those whose monthly
checks hover around the $600 mark. And, for untold thousands,
that is the only check they get to cash every month. It
is those who are at the bottom end of Social Security benefits
who need the raise. Many of them are desperate and they
are the people who have little in the way of creature comforts.
Monthly rent for a room might take half of their benefit.
Never
believe the profound lie that Medicaid and Medicare provide
a “safety net” for these people and that, if all else fails,
they can go to the emergency room. Let George Junior Bush
try getting treatment for cancer in the emergency room.
Republicans have made themselves incapable of pronouncing
the word “increase,” when it comes to social programs that
help the downtrodden. Rather, they prefer to cut and cut,
then cut some more, all the while desperately fighting for
increases in military and defense spending, cuts in the
tax rate for corporations, and reductions in the tax burden
on the wealthy. There are too many Democrats who have swallowed
the toxins of social cuts, as well.
The
American world is, indeed, divided into two parts, the 1
percent and the 99 percent and, as always, the 1 percent
is in charge. Just ask Mitt Romney, who believes, as he
said during the GOP primary campaign, “Corporations are
people, too, my friend.” In that simple declaration, he
placed himself squarely in the corner of the rich and powerful
and showed himself to be securely in the pocket of Corporate
America. That’s the 1 percent, of which he is a proud member.
He will tell you that those people are the “job creators.”
Don’t believe that for a second, either.
As
economist Richard Wolff said recently in a cogent analysis
of the state of the U.S. economy, the people who claim to be job creators
are not. In reality, all of us, together, are the job creators.
When the people participate in the economy, the money circulates
and that makes for business and industry that are alive
and which create jobs.
When
the wealth of a nation is given to the self-proclaimed job
creators, it disappears and is no longer available to the
national economy and that’s why economies sink, just like
the American economy is sinking. The response of the Republicans
and others on the right is to cut more and more of those
things that benefit the greatest number of people, including
wages. That’s what makes an economy run. That’s what makes
an economy succeed and provide for the masses of the people.
Let’s
not be fooled that Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare,
as well as other social-benefit programs need to be cut
as is being proposed by so many of the 1 percent. Rather,
those programs, along with benefits (like food, clothing,
and shelter) need to increase for the millions of children
who are suffering in a country that says it cannot afford
to take care of them.
There
is no shame among Republicans and others on the right who
can say with a straight face, “The U.S. can’t afford to
feed, house, clothe, educate, and provide health care for
the children and the poor.” But it won’t matter much who
is shamed and who isn’t, or who has committed shameful acts,
when what’s left of the economy is lying under their feet.
For
the rest of us, fight any cuts to Social Security and the
other social programs that still exist and demand that programs
that benefit all be increased! The welfare of our
people is too important to be left to the 1 percent and
their politicians.
BlackCommentator.com
Columnist, John Funiciello, is a labor organizer and former
union organizer. His union work started when he became a
local president of The Newspaper Guild in the early 1970s.
He was a reporter for 14 years for newspapers in New York State. In
addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers
as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure
from factory food producers and land developers. Click here
to contact Mr. Funiciello.
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