A friend who doesn't much follow politics forwarded this viral-style email to me and asked for my opinion. The email starts by talking about the "troubled" Social Security system, and proposes a response that sounded weird and fishy to me. I drafted a response, but before I send it I'd appreciate any input you'd be willing to offer, so I'm sure I've got my facts straight.
The email, and my draft response, are below the squiggle.
Thanks!
Here's the email I was sent:
well, what do you guys think? will it go viral?
(signed, my friend's name)
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> This is such a good idea. I am so glad that someone put it in words. A sure fix for our troubled Social Security system. Hope you pass it along as I am doing. It would be good if something could come of it......
>
> Subject: AMENDMENT
>
> The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it, partly because 18 year olds were being killed in Viet Nam - they at least deserved a vote! That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.
>
> Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.
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> I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise. Theoretically in three days, most people in the United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.
>
> Congressional Reform Act of 2011
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> 1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
>
> 2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move BACK to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
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> 3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
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> 4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
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> 5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
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> 6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
>
> 7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
>
> If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.
>
> THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!
>
> If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete...
>
> You are one of my 20+. Please keep it going. And YES we are talking about BOTH parties. They are equally guilty of a lot of 'stuff'.
And here is my draft reply. What do you think of this?
(started with some personal chitchat, then...)
What do I think of this proposal? Not much, actually. Our "troubled Social Security system" isn't in trouble. Under its present setup it is projected to be making more than it spends for at least the next 25 years. After that, it will have trillions of dollars in the bank (actually, on loan to the US Government and earning interest) and is projected to be able to go decades more on its savings. Yes, sometime in the next 40+ years it will need to be tweaked. But that's plenty of time - hardly "troubled". Details at http://www.ssa.gov/...
And the tweaks are easy. The simplest one is to stop capping it. Currently only earnings below $106,800/year owe the Social Security tax. See http://en.wikipedia.org/... So high-wage earners for the most part don't pay Social Security tax on what they make. If this cap were removed, so everyone paid Social Security tax on all their earnings, no further tweak would be necessary.
Social Security tax is also currently not owed on investments and other non-wage earnings, again, primarily a break for the upper income brackets. If this was also changed the Social Security system would be even fairer and earn more income.
Emails that pretend Social Security is "troubled" are really a setup for trying to cut it, which the right-wing has been trying to do ever since Social Security was created 80+ years ago. What really should go viral is the truth of the situation.
As to this proposal:
> 1. No Tenure / No Pension
This would mean that regular people would be even less likely to be in a position to serve in government than they are today. So only wealthier people could do so. Members of Congress are already a rich boys' club, this would make it worse.
> 2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
Because of the Social Security cap and the high pay of members of congress, only about half their earnings would be taxable. Sweet deal.
> 3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan
People in that income bracket can afford any retirement plan they want. The rest of the country, not so much.
> 4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay
> will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
Same problem as #1, as Congressional pay shrinks in real terms gradually it will be less and less possible for regular people to serve. Not that it's easy today. This is the same squeeze that Prop 13 did to California as a whole, and look where that got us.
> 5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the
> same health care system as the American people.
This doesn't mean anything, since "the same health care system as the American people" generally means whatever health care system your employer provides. Currently, Congress gets the US Government employees' health care system same as other government employees, which is already "the same health care system as the American people".
> 6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
Again, this doesn't mean anything since it is already true.
> 7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.
Contracts for what? There aren't any, so again, this doesn't mean anything. It's here so this looks like it changes something that it doesn't.
So this doesn't do what it purports to do. In the end, all told, this proposal will have a similar effect to term limits. Some people think term limits are a good thing but they are not. Under term limits, elected legislators are cycled out in a few years so the only people who have the long experience to understand how government really works are the lobbyists. And the job of lobbyists, of course, is to make government do what their employers want, not what's best for all of us.
The courts have ruled that term limits cannot be applied to Federal legislators because the terms under which they serve are set in the Constitution, and term limits are not listed there. A constitutional amendment, then, is the only way this could be changed. People have proposed copnstitutional amendments to add term limits but fortunately this has not gone anywhere. The kind of constitutional amendment in this email is an attempt to do the same thing by the back door. Fortunately I doubt it will go anywhere either. "Fortunately" because if it did go anywhere the lobbyists would rule in Washington even more than the do today.
Speaking of lobbyists, I'd guess this email originated with some right-wing lobbyist firm looking to agitate people to do the wrong thing for trumped-up reasons. (They're good at that.) My suggestion would be to forward my reply back up the line by which you received this. The facts are clear, all it takes is for people to look at them.
(signed my name)
Did I get it right? And if not, what should I change?