By Olympia Dukakis

I am a grandmother and I feel compelled to speak out against what this White House wants to do to Social Security.

Rather than fix a program that has helped millions and millions of Americans and never missed a payment in 70 years, President Bush is hell bent on pursuing a campaign designed to destroy the most successful and efficiently run government program of all time.

I have watched from the sidelines as the president and his anti-government ideologues barnstormed the country, peddling the notion that Social Security is in crisis and facing imminent bankruptcy. Time and again, President Bush has ominously warned that the system is on the brink of collapse if something isn’t done quickly. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. And it’s because of the president’s attempts to exploit the need to change Social Security, that I am speaking up.

I’d say the president is both right and wrong. He is right to point out that if something isn’ t done to correct how Social Security is financed, there won’t be enough money to pay full benefits to future workers. But he is wrong to suggest that Social Security’s long-term cash-flow problems can be fixed by creating private investment accounts. Nothing about private accounts address Social Security’s future funding challenges.

What the president hopes—and what I fear—is that most Americans are too busy, too distracted by life’s daily demands to pay attention to the details of private investment accounts. On the surface, they sound good, especially when the president himself just about guarantees returns most citizen investors only dream about. But privatization carries a high price. President Bush omits talk about the astronomical costs of funding private accounts, the risks inherent in investing and the fact that private accounts will only accelerate the drain on Social Security’s Trust Fund.

I believe as grandparents we owe it to our children and grandchildren to fight any plan that will produce benefit cuts and massive debt our young relatives will be stuck re-paying back. Millions of hard-working Americans pay into Social Security every day and deserve the full and guaranteed benefits they earned.

In addition, 47 million people—2.4 million in Pennsylvania—today rely on survivor benefits, disability benefits and retirement benefits to live a life graced with dignity and respect. Imagine their lives without the adequate Social Security income they count on.

As a senior citizen, I also ask that people try to envision what America was like for its elderly citizens before Social Security’s enactment. Old age was synonymous with poverty and destitution for the majority of seniors. Even 40 years ago, almost 60 percent of our country’s elderly population had annual incomes less than $1,000. Their future was bleak, desperate and supported only by the help and generosity of family and friends. Retirement was anything but golden.

Thanks to an expansion of Social Security, however, and the fact that benefits are today calculated based on average wage growth, the age group that once experienced the highest rate of poverty in the United States is today the age group with the lowest rate. In just a couple of decades, the senior poverty rate accomplished a stunning turnaround in large part because of the key role Social Security played in ensuring a livable retirement income.

But don’t let numbers lead you to believe America’s seniors are living a life of leisure. Nothing could be farther from reality for almost one-fourth of this country’s elderly population. In 2004, Social Security was the only source of income for 22 percent of all older Americans. And for all Americans 65 and older, Social Security accounts for 42 percent of their income.

Social Security has been instrumental in keeping seniors out of poverty—and without this guaranteed income, nearly half of all Americans 65 and older would be living below the federal poverty line, nearly 13 million of my fellow seniors. People who have spent their lives working hard, raising families, contributing to the betterment of their communities.

Lawmakers charged with overhauling Social Security must resist the temptation to politicize this remarkably successful government program. Sensible minds providing sensible solutions to secure Social Security’s long-term solvency is what all Americans should expect from our elected officials. Repaying the Trust Fund’s IOUs, raising the earnings cap and repealing the tax cuts currently afforded only to America’s most wealthy citizens are just three solutions that should be seriously discussed as ways to shore up Social Security.

In addition, we should oppose all efforts to reduce future benefits by changing the formula by which payments are calculated.

I vow to be but one senior who will tell her elected officials to say "No" to privatization. I owe it to my two grandchildren and I’m hoping that the 36 million other American seniors will join me in making our voices heard.

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