Civil Rights Coalition: All Americans Threatened by "Stealth Attack" on Social Security
Feature Story by archives.civilrights.org staff - 5/4/2005
Calling Social Security "one of our nation's most important civil rights programs," the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), announced last week it would be coordinating a new national campaign to protect the program by highlighting the inherent risks of the Bush administration's privatization proposal.The announcement was timed to coincide with the Senate Finance Committee's first hearing on the President's proposal to set up individual retirement accounts within Social Security.
"We're here because Social Security, a program which is vital to the civil rights of all Americans and which our constituents disproportionately rely on, is under stealth attack," said LCCR Executive Director Wade Henderson at a news conference on Capitol Hill to announce the national campaign.
"The truth is that Social Security is one of our nation's most important civil rights programs. It protects the welfare and retirement security of 47 million retirees, Americans with disabilities, widows and children of whom a disproportionate share are minorities," Henderson said.
Civil rights groups argue that President Bush's plan would unfairly penalize women, minorities, and individuals with disabilities.
Debra Ness of the National Partnership for Women and Families described the concerns of American women, stating, "Women are already disadvantaged in retirement because we are paid less, live longer, assume more care giving responsibilities and are less likely than men to have private pensions. Women fear that the privatization President Bush proposes would exacerbate existing inequities and increase women's risk for poverty in old age."
Describing the risks that privatization would pose for minorities, Hilary Shelton of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said, "Americans of color have traditionally been at the low end of the earning scale over our lifetimes. We are historically more apt to have pursued physically demanding jobs in our lifetimes, and as such have a lower life expectancy and a higher rate of disability than the average American."
Overlooked in many of the discussions about Social Security is the program's social insurance component. More than 7 million Americans depend on Social Security's disability benefits, including 1.6 million children who have a parent with a disability.
John Lancaster, executive director of the National Council on Independent Living, said, "More than seven million Social Security checks go to people with disabilities and their families to help them live and work independently. NCIL believes that the proposed private accounts could result in major benefit cuts, massive new government borrowing, and could destroy the social insurance system designed to reduce risk from certain life events."
According to Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Latino community cannot afford to gamble with Social Security.
"Latino families cannot be placed at risk and we cannot support any project that jeopardizes Social Security. Not only is it a retirement insurance that is a pillar of the middle-class way of life, but it accounts for the disadvantaged - the lost, least and forgotten," Wilkes said.
The public seems to agree. Opinion polls have shown a decline in support for privatization since the President started his 60-day campaign to overhaul Social Security.
