*** URGENT *** SS privatization coming in September - HR 3304

Sapphire Blue

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Sun Aug-28-05 03:08 PM
Original message

The first step in privatizing Social Security is coming in September. Please take action to stop HR 3304.

Ask your member of Congress to oppose Social Security privatization @ http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/PledgeforSocialSecurity

You can also call your member of Congress @ 1-877-SOB-U-SOB (Capitol toll-free number)

An email from AFL-CIO's Working Families E-Activist...

Tell Congress: Don't Privatize Social Security

Your members of Congress can give all their constituents a big
Labor Day gift by pledging not to privatize Social
Security--America's most successful family protection program.

Shortly after Labor Day, Congress will begin work on President
Bush's plan to replace Social Security's guaranteed benefits
with risky private accounts--and in the process slash benefits,
rack up massive new federal debt for our children to pay off,
open Social Security up to corruption and possibly raise the
retirement age.

Please send a message to your senators and representative right
now urging them to pledge to oppose Social Security
privatization. Click on the link below:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/PledgeforSocialSecurity

If we convince enough members of Congress to sign the pledge,
President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security won't stand a
chance. It won't be easy, but together we can do this.

When Congress gets back to work in September, the push for
private accounts will begin quickly with the House Ways and
Means Committee taking up H.R. 3304, a bill by Rep. Jim McCrery
(R-La.) that privatization proponents claim is a new idea to
stop the "raiding" of Social Security by Congress.

Wrong! The McCrery bill is the first step toward President
Bush's plan to privatize and ruin Social Security--and nothing
more. It creates private accounts, cuts guaranteed benefits,
increases the national debt--and does absolutely nothing to stop
the raids on the Social Security surplus or keep the program
solvent.

Our members of Congress need to STRENGTHEN Social
Security--America's most successful family security program--not
privatize it. Click on the link below now to urge them to pledge
to oppose Social Security privatization:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/PledgeforSocialSecurity

Privatization plans would fatally undermine Social Security by
tossing out the program's promised benefits in exchange for
no-guarantee privatized accounts. More retirees would live out
their years in poverty because of huge benefit cuts. In the
first 20 years alone, privatization could add $4.9 trillion to
the federal debt. And privatization would open Social Security
up to political corruption and Enron-ization, because
politicians would chose which Wall Street firms could make
billions off privatized accounts.

Tell Congress to protect workers and their retirement this Labor
Day season. Urge them to sign the pledge to oppose Social
Security privatization. Click on the link below:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/PledgeforSocialSecurity

Thank you for taking action for retirement security.

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO
Aug. 25, 2005

H.R.3304
Title: To amend the Social Security Act and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to stop the Congress from spending Social Security's tax revenue surpluses on other Government programs by dedicating those surpluses to personal accounts.
Sponsor: Rep McCrery, Jim (introduced 7/14/2005) Cosponsors (44)
Latest Major Action: 7/14/2005 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

SUMMARY AS OF:
7/14/2005--Introduced.

Growing Real Ownership for Workers Act of 2005 - Amends title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) to add a new part B (GROW Accounts Program) under which a GROW Accounts Board shall establish a GROW account for each participating individual.

Directs the Secretary of the Treasury, during each calendar year, to transfer to the Board for deposit into an interim fund, amounts equal in the aggregate to 100% of the net OASDI Trust Fund surplus for such calendar year.

Requires the interim fund to be invested by the Board in marketable Government Securities.

Provides for distributions of an account balance at retirement and treatment of part A (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) benefit payments.

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) exempt all GROW accounts from federal taxes; (2) make account distributions taxable as Social Security benefits; and (3) exempt assets of GROW accounts from the estate tax.

http://thomas.loc.gov/ (Enter bill number HR 3304)