Media



For media inquiries please contact Joshua Rosenblum at [email protected] .

Apr
05
Statement on President Obama's Budget Including Social Security Cuts

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, April 5, 2013

 

Statement on President Obama's Budget Including Social Security Cuts

 
(Washington, DC) — It has been reported by the New York Times and others that the president's budget will definitely include the chained CPI benefit cut to Social Security and other Medicare benefit cuts. The following are statements from the founding co-directors of Social Security Works and the co-chairs of the Strengthen Social Security Campaign:

Social Security is too important to the economic security of the American people to be used as a bargaining chip. The president's own Secretary of the Treasury and former Director of the Office of Management and Budget has written about the budget, 'The problem is not Social Security; the problem is the mismatch between outlays and revenues in the rest of the budget.'  Applying the so-called chained CPI to Social Security cuts the benefits of every single Social Security beneficiary, now and in the future.  The very groups who worked the hardest and voted in the highest percentages to re-elect the president -- working families, women, people of color, young Americans -- will be the ones hurt the most by the cuts the president is reportedly including in his budget.
   

 
Read it here. Read it there.
May
21
Social Security News, Tuesday 5-21-13

 

Politico (DC)

Report: More seniors are living in poverty

Read it here. Read it there.
May
20
Social Security News, Monday 5-20-13

SSW/SSSC mention

 

BET (NAT)

News: Blacks Brace for Social Security Cuts

5-17-13

The Obama administration is considering changes that may leave the lives of Black Social Security recipients hanging in the balance. Season 2013 (05/17/2013)

Read it here. Read it there.
May
14
Reps. DeLauro (CT), Conyers (MI), Deutch (FL), and Cicilline (RI), to Rollout New Report for Incoming Social Security Commissioner

 Media Advisory For:

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

 

Contact: Lacy Crawford, SSW – 

[email protected]

                                                   

Reps. DeLauro (CT), Conyers (MI), Deutch (FL), and Cicilline (RI), to Rollout New Report for Incoming Social Security Commissioner

(Washington, DC) -- Please join Rep. DeLauro (D-CT), Conyers (MI), Deutch (D-FL), and Cicilline (D-RI) along with the Strengthen Social Security Coalition, the National Women’s Law Center and the National Seniors Citizens Law Center this Wednesday, May 15 at 12:30pm for the release of the Transition Report For The New Commissioner of Social Security.

Read it here. Read it there.
May
13
Social Security News, Monday 5-13-13

 

SSW/SSSC mention

 

Remapping Debate (NY)

Can those aged 45 to 64 be saved from misery in retirement? How?

5-10-13

Eric Kingson, a professor of social work and public administration at Syracuse University and founding co-director of Social Security Works, a group that advocates for the protection of the Social Security system, said a retiree with income below 200 percent of the poverty line who faces significant health care costs is often forced to compromise between her health care and other necessities, such as clothing. For some, he said, health care loses out and “people cut their medicine.”

Read it here. Read it there.
May
10
Social Security News, Friday 5-10-13

 

 SSW/SSSC mention

Politico (DC)

First in PI ... Bloomberg group drops $650K against Ayotte - Industry comes together on patent reform - Thompson Coburn fetes new hires

BYRON TAU & ANNA PALMER

5-10-13

PROGRESSIVES ORGANIZE AGAINST BENEFIT CHANGES: A group of progressives rallied this week against benefit cuts and changes at a Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid summit. "Right now, there are people who want to cut benefits for seniors who live on $1,100 a month, but at the same time they support maintaining subsidies for big agricultural companies — that's wrong," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said. Warren was joined by Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), who all spoke.

Read it here. Read it there.
May
09
Social Security News, Thursday 5-9-13

 

SSW/SSSC mention

 

WPRI (RI)

RI delegation uniting on Wednesday – to fight Obama

Ted Nesi

5-9-13

There were 207,122 Rhode Island residents receiving Social Security benefits in December 2011, the most recent month for which figures are available – meaning nearly 20% of state residents are on Social Security. Two-thirds of Rhode Island’s beneficiaries were 65 or older, while 35,905 were disabled and 15,704 were children. The Rhode Islanders’ combined Social Security benefits totaled $236 million that month. The congressional event at 12:30 p.m. will be streamed live online by Strengthen Social Security, a coalition of unions and progressive groups that supports increasing benefits.

Read it here. Read it there.
May
06
Social Security News, Monday 5-6-13

 

SSW/SSSC mention

 

AARP (DC)

People Try to Put Us Down – Talking About All Generations

Josh Rosenblum

5-6-13

In Nancy Altman’s 2005 book The Battle for Social Security: From FDR’s Vision to Bush’s Gamble, she opens with the story of how after 9/11 “the families of virtually every worker who perished that day were entitled to benefits under the program.”

Read it here. Read it there.
May
06
Social Security News, Friday 5-3-13

 Social Security News, Friday 5-3-13

 

Columbia Journalism Review (NY)

Planet 401(k): Tom Friedman’s bleak vision

TRUDY LIEBERMAN

5-3-13

In the past week, two prominent columnists have added another layer to this meme. It’s a brave new world out there. Americans must help themselves and we’d better get used to it. What this means in social insurance terms is that Social Security may no longer be for everyone, that we can no longer afford such a sturdy pillar, even for those at the bottom of the economic ladder. As for Medicare—the government may have to cut back paying medical bills for the elderly because it is too costly. We’re looking at a kind of new world, based on survival of the financially fittest.

Read it here. Read it there.
May
06
Social Security News, Thursday 5-2-13

 

SSW/SSSC mention

 

Huffington Post (NAT)

Change.org Opens Platform To Small Donors

5-1-13

In November, Alex Lawson, an activist with Social Security Works, which was battling Fix The Debt, proposed to Change.org's Benjamin Joffe-Walt that the company allow users to flag campaigns "specifically aimed at misrepresentation, not being honest or disclosing conflicts," as he suggested in an email to Joffe-Walt. "So this could apply as much to a grassroots campaign as an Astroturf campaign. If a person starts a petition against apples but doesn't disclose they sell oranges that would be flagged."

Read it here. Read it there.
May
06
Social Security News, Wednesday 5-1-13

 

New York Times (NAT)

It’s a 401(k) World

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

4-30-13

The policy implications? “Just as having a 401(k) defined contribution plan requires you to learn more about investing in your retirement, a 401(k) world requires you to learn much more about investing in yourself: how do I build my own competencies to be attractive to employers and flourish in this world,” said Byron Auguste, a director at McKinsey and one of the founders of Hope Street Group, which develops policies to help Americans navigate this changing economy. “As young people rise to that challenge, the value of mentors, social networks and role models will rise.”

Read it here. Read it there.
May
06
Social Security News, Tuesday 4-30-13

 

SSW/SSSC mention

 

Connecticut Post (CT)

New calculator for Social Security benefits could have devastating effect

L.M. Sixel

4-29-13

"It's a benefit cut," said Nancy Altman, co-chair of Strengthen Social Security Coalition, a group of 320 national and state organizations ranging from the American Federation of Teachers to United Cerebral Palsy to American GI Forum.

Read it here. Read it there.
Apr
29
Social Security News, Monday 4-29-13

 


New York Times (NAT)

Heading the Wrong Way

Read it here. Read it there.
Apr
26
Social Security News, Friday 4-26-13

Salon (NAT)

Elite conventional wisdom is losing on Social Security

MICHAEL LIND

4-26-13

The rival proposal came in a policy paper called “Expanded Social Security,” written by Steven Hill, Robert Hiltonsmith, Joshua Freedman and me, and published by the New America Foundation’s Economic Growth Program. Our plan called for a major expansion of Social Security benefits, on the grounds that Social Security is far more efficient and reliable than the other two “legs” of the retirement security “stool” — employer pensions (both defined-benefit pensions and 401Ks) and tax-deferred private savings accounts like IRAs.

Read it here. Read it there.
Apr
25
Social Security News, Thursday 4-25-13

 

SSW/SSSC mention

 

Hullabaloo (Blog)

Do you think $15,000 is real money?

digby

4-25-13

So, they've crunched some real numbers and determined exactly how much money the average Social Security recipient can expect to lose if the Chained-CPI is implemented. I'm going to assume that if someone told you that the government was going to seize $15,000.00 from your 401k you'd think it was a cut:

Read it here. Read it there.

View the full text of the petition here


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