HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

186

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

OPPOSING THE PRIVATIZATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY.

 

 

WHEREAS, Social Security is more than a retirement program -- it is our country's most important and successful income protection program that provides economic security to workers, retirees, persons with disabilities, and the surviving spouses and children of deceased workers; and

WHEREAS, Social Security provides essential benefits to over 195,000 people in Hawaii, including 139,300 retired workers, 16,090 widows and widowers, 16,790 disabled workers, and 13,630 children; and

WHEREAS, Social Security has reduced the poverty rate of our elders from over thirty per cent down to 10.2 per cent in the last forty years and, without Social Security, thirty-four per cent of elderly women in Hawaii would be poor; and

WHEREAS, six out of ten of current Social Security beneficiaries in Hawaii derive more than half of their income from Social Security, and in most low-income households of retirement age, Social Security represents eighty per cent or more of their retirement income; and

WHEREAS, the Social Security Trust Fund is large enough to pay one hundred per cent of promised benefits until 2042, and after that, seventy-three per cent of benefits could still be paid even if no changes of any kind are made to the system; and

WHEREAS, proposals are being considered in the nation's capital that would privatize Social Security and threaten the retirement security of millions of Americans and their families; and

WHEREAS, some officials and members of the United States Congress have suggested the federal government will not pay back the money it has taken from the Social Security Trust Fund over the past twenty years and used for other things, thereby denying working families the money they paid into Social Security and leading to further benefit cuts; and

WHEREAS, diverting more than one-third of the 6.2 per cent of wages that workers currently contribute to Social Security into private accounts drains money from the Social Security system and will cut guaranteed benefits by thirty per cent for young workers, even for those who do not participate in private accounts, costing them $152,000 over the course of their retirements, denying them benefits they have earned, and imperiling their economic security; and

WHEREAS, diverting money from Social Security will increase the national debt by almost $2,000,000,000,000 over the next ten years –- a debt that will be passed on to future generations; and

WHEREAS, privatizing Social Security will burden state and local governments, as cuts in guaranteed benefits will increase demand for public assistance during the very period that growth in the federal deficit due to privatization will induce the federal government to shift greater responsibilities onto states and localities; and

WHEREAS, privatization is particularly harmful to women and minorities who rely most on Social Security, by replacing a portion of a secure benefit with investment risk –- a risk that they cannot afford to take; and

WHEREAS, widows would experience enormous cuts under privatization by having their Social Security benefits reduced from $829 to $456 per month, which is only sixty-three per cent of the poverty level, even when proceeds from private accounts are included in the total; and

WHEREAS, private accounts do not provide the lifetime, inflation-adjusted benefit that Social Security does, and they can be depleted by longevity and market fluctuations; and

WHEREAS, Social Security needs to be strengthened now for the sake of our children and grandchildren; and

WHEREAS, however, the United States Congress should not rush through drastic and damaging changes in Social Security that undermine its family income protections but, instead, should take the time needed to develop careful and thoughtful reforms that address Social Security's funding needs without slashing benefits or exploding the deficit; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2005, the Senate concurring, that the Legislature declares its opposition to the privatization of Social Security and urges Hawaii's congressional delegates and the other members of the United States Congress to:

(1) Commit to paying back to the Social Security Trust Fund all of the money it borrowed and spent on other programs;

(2) Carefully study a variety of potential changes that will address Social Security's problems while ensuring the program will continue to meet its purpose of providing income protection and economic security for America's families;

(3) Strengthen Social Security's family income protections without slashing guaranteed benefits or expanding the federal deficit; and

(4) Reject proposals to divert money out of Social Security to fund private accounts; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President of the United States Senate, the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, and the Governor.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:

Opposing Privatization of Social Security