Action Archive

Victory Over Social Security Privatization

Roger Hickey — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 10:30:42 -0500

Why Americans Rejected Bush's Raw Deal on Social Security

President Bush's No. 1 domestic priority, privatization of Social Security, was stopped dead in its tracks in 2005. On Friday, December 2, the Campaign for America's Future held a forum at the National Press Club to remind the media about the citizen uprising—organized by CAF and Americans United to Protect Social Security—that made democracy work and turned the public against privatization.

You can watch video and read remarks from the session that featured political commentator Joe Conason, author of The Raw Deal: How the Bush Republicans Plan to Destroy Social Security and the Legacy of the New Deal, a hot new book on privatization, Democratic pollster Celinda Lake and CAF Co-Director Roger Hickey. They briefed reporters on the fight to protect Social Security and its effects on the 2006 mid-term elections.

Joe Conason

New York Observer Columnist, political commentator and bestselling author of The Raw Deal: How the Bush Republicans Plan to Destroy Social Security and the Legacy of the New Deal.

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Celinda Lake

President, Lake Research Partners and author of What Women Really Want: How American Women Are Quietly Erasing Political, Racial, Class, and Religious Lines to Change the Way We Live.

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Roger Hickey
Co-Director, Campaign for America's Future, founding board member of Americans United to Protect Social Security, and author of the important January 2003 memo: A Battle Progressives Can Win, published in The American Prospect, February 2005 (v16, no2):

"For progressives, the battle for Social Security represents a rare opportunity to stop the newly re-elected president dead in his tracks, to demonstrate the bankruptcy of his extreme conservative agenda, and to point to a new politics of "shared security" around which we can build a new majority for change. Winning won't be easy, but a powerful combination of progressive forces—national organizations, political funders and philanthropists, policy experts, and grassroots and online networks (including veterans of the 2004 elections)—are coming together."

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Click for Event Remarks »

Social Security's Birthday

Roger Hickey — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 11:19:45 -0400

On August 14th, America celebrated the 70th birthday of Social Security, the most successful social program ever created. But, President Bush didn't want anyone celebrating. Why? Because an outpouring of public praise for Social Security's 70 years of success would deal another blow to his plans to privatize the program and turn it over to Wall Street.

To celebrate, we organized hundreds of events around the country and sent thousands of Social Security e-birthday cards across the internet.

Read an inspiring speech delivered by Vermont retiree Winnie Pineo, 97, at a Social Security rally at the FDR Memorial. Her stirring words describe why America must honor and protect Social Security.

Winnie Pineo's Social Security Speech

Delivered at the FDR Memorial by Winnie Pineo, age 97, of South Ryegate, Vt.

August 12, 2005

Thank you so much, Representative Norton. I am happy to be here today to help kick off this nation-wide celebration of Social Security’s 70th Anniversary. I’m honored to be among these prestigious speakers. And I thank Americans United to Protect Social Security for inviting me.

Now, Walt Whitman wrote: “In this broad Earth of ours, amid the measureless grossness and the slag, enclosed and safe within its central heart nestles the seed perfection. By every life, a share or more, or less. None born, but it is born. Concealed or unconcealed, the seed is waiting.”

In 1935, in the middle of a terrible depression, Franklin Roosevelt took note of the goodness in people. He also recognized the need for insuring a dignified old age. And the seed of Social Security was planted, and thrives today because of people like you.

I am 97 years old. I live by myself on an old farm in Northern Vermont. Social Security provides the bulk of my income. I was 27 when Social Security became law. For seven decades now, the right wing has attacked Social Security. And for six and one half decades they got nowhere. Until recently, I could never have forseen that a president would take the lead in destroying the most valuable social program we have.

But it’s not just a social program. It’s a moral commitment that holds us together. We all give and we all take. We all benefit and we do it for each other. That’s the way a real democracy works.

Look around you. Look at the beautiful monuments dedicated to Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson. Do you think these men intended for America to be a dog-eat-dog society controlled by a few at the expense of the many? Or do you think they meant something else? Roosevelt certainly thought so, and his thought is inscribed on one of the walls of this memorial. He said: “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

In my own state of Vermont, there are many who have too little. We have not only 60,000 retired workers who rely on Social Security. But we also have over 14,000 disabled workers, over 10,000 widows and widowers. And more than 8,000 children.

Those people, many of them just like you and me, don’t need a financial gamble. We need a guarantee. It was because of the devastation of the stock market crash in 1929 that my generation fought to establish Social Security as a guarantee – not something that could be squandered in the volatile stock market. We wanted it to provide financial security to all kinds of folks – in good times and bad – and not be subject to the ups and downs of Wall Street.

Sorry, Mr. President. I lived through one stock market crash. And I want to tell you that another can happen again and it can happen here. And if Social Security is bound up in the market, the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in my state – and tens of millions of people around the country – will be blown away like fall leaves in the Green Mountains.

I have spent my century. When I look to the future I see my three great grandchildren: Alex, Nicky and Nina. I want for them the best that this troubled Earth has to offer. I want that for all of your grandchildren and great grandchildren as well. I want us to keep our moral commitments to each other. And that includes the grand commitment we’ve enshrined in Social Security.

We cannot fail. And we will not fail.

Thousands of Americans Stand Up for Social Security

Roger Hickey — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 11:48:29 -0400

We worked with our allies at Americans United to Protect Social Security to organize the "Take A Stand" campaign. In total, we held 224 Take a Stand events and 53 town hall meetings in the districts of 65 uncommitted members of Congress urging them to stand up against President Bush's risky privatization scheme. Thousands of Americans stood up for Social Security at events across the country.

Listen to Adam Luna discuss the importance of the Take a Stand Events. GO»

Below are some photo highlights from our Take A Stand events:

Louisianans United to Protect Social Security rally on May 31, 2005 outside the Lafayette, La., office of Republican Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., asking him to stop monkeying around with our Social Security benefits and to take a stand against Bush's proposal for private accounts.

Over four hundred people attended this June 2 rally against privatization with Missourians United to Protect Social Security in St. Louis, Mo., where President Bush raised money for Senator Jim Talent.

Peggy Stone, age 79, at a Pennsylvanians United to Protect Social Security rally in Bryn Mawr, Penn., where the President headlined a fundraiser for Rick Santorum on June 14.

National Day of Action Rallies

Roger Hickey — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 11:05:46 -0500

On April 26, 2005, Americans United to Protect Social Security — a coalition including the Campaign for America's Future — organized hundreds of rallies across the country to stop privatization and protect Social Security. Thousands of Americans gathered at rallies across the nation to say NO! to President Bush's privatization plan. On Capitol Hill, over one hundred Democratic members of Congress, led by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, declared their united front against privatization.

State of the Union Rebuttal: Presidential Counter-Rallies

Roger Hickey — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 12:09:44 -0500

Following his State of the Union address, President Bush set out on a multi-state tour to outline his No. 1 domestic priority: privatizing Social Security. Along with our coalition partners, we organized rallies and press conferences at each stop to tell him, "Hands Off Social Security!"

State of the Union Rebuttal: Social Security Letter-to-the-Editor Campaign

Roger Hickey — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 12:00:55 -0500

Following President Bush's State of the Union address, which talked about Social Security as if the sky were falling, the Campaign for America's Future organized a letter-to-the-editor campaign to make it clear that privatization is the only Social Security crisis. Nearly 3,000 people wrote letters to newspapers in all 50 states. Letters from our supporters appeared in at least 26 newspapers including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Oregonian and Newsday.

Corruption Exposé on Rep. Jim McCrery Gets Results

tjackson — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 11:56:30 -0500

In the last two weeks of February 2005, we launched a multimedia advertising blitz to expose the Wall Street conflict of interest of Rep. Jim McCrery — the man charged to push Social Security privatization through the House of Representatives.

We ran three full page ads in McCrery's hometown newpapers, and followed by airing a pointed TV ad - over 100 times in McCrery's home district. Both ads broadcast McCrery's Wall Street conflict to hundreds of thousands of his own constituents, and reached millions more through national media coverage in The New York Times, CNN, USA Today, Time Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, TalkingPointsMemo.com and others.

See the ads below, and take stock in the fact that our shared and hard-hitting fight against Social Security privatization is winning!

Representative Jim
McCrery, R-La.)

Who McCrery is supposed to represent

The 638,466 people of Louisiana's 4th Congressional District.

Who does McCrery actually represent?

Rep. McCrery's Top Five Commercial Bank and Securities Contributors:

American Bankers Association: $14,500

Bank of America: $12,500

Wachovia: $8,000

Morgan Stanley: $7,000

J.P. Morgan: $3,000

Total contributions to McCrery from commercial banks and securities (2000-2004): $198,650

ACTION RESULTS

Check out the TV ad that aired over 100 times in McCrery's home district.

See the full ad (PDF) that we ran in McCrery's two hometown newspapers to launch the multi-media expose on his corruption.

Find out more about Congressman McCrery and his corporate connections.