WHEREAS:

            The Social Security Act of 1935, which arose from the hardships of the Great Depression and now includes the Social Security Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance program, the unemployment insurance program and the Medicare health insurance program for seniors and people with disabilities, is the centerpiece of America’s social insurance system; and

WHEREAS:

            The Social Security program provides insurance protection for workers who lose their earnings due to retirement, disability or death; pays monthly benefits for life to all who meet its eligibility criteria; maintains the value of its benefits with annual cost-of-living adjustments based on increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI); and is totally self-financed and so dependable that it has never missed a payout in over 70 years; and

WHEREAS:

            Medicare – enacted in 1965 because private insurers were unable to provide affordable medical coverage to the most vulnerable Americans – now pays basic health care costs for 39.6 million individuals over age 65 and 7.9 million individuals with disabilities, enabling them to get the medical services they need, while preventing medical-cost bankruptcy and impoverishment; and

WHEREAS:

            The Federal-State Unemployment Insurance Program, included as part of the original Social Security Act, paid out billions of dollars to provide wage replacement income to millions of workers laid off during the Great Recession, the deepest downturn since the Great Depression, helping workers avoid abject poverty while they looked for work and helping to stimulate economic activity to prevent an even deeper downturn; and

WHEREAS:

            All these programs are currently under attack by anti-government politicians and opinion leaders.  Efforts to fight back have been hindered by a general lack of understanding of the sound concepts behind  social insurance, as well as its inherent strengths; and

WHEREAS:

            Social insurance is a highly effective response to some of the common risks in life – including serious illness, permanent disability or wage loss due to death, retirement or layoff from a job - because it enables workers and/or their employers to make payroll contributions into a pool, and share those risks with every other participant in the nation and become eligible for benefits as an earned right; and

WHEREAS:  

            Although social insurance has similarities to private insurance, it not only protects individuals, but also benefits society as a whole by preventing widespread poverty without compromising the dignity of workers and their families, by maintaining equity for individuals and fairness for all, and by contributing to the economic base of communities by assuring steady income to citizens who no longer collect wages; and

WHEREAS:

            Our social insurance programs reflect American values such as neighbor helping neighbor, the interdependence of citizens and generations, the integrity of work, the importance of family and respect for elders.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME will work to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security by advocating for new revenue, such as an increase in the $110,100 wage cap on payroll contributions.   AFSCME will fight efforts to undermine Social Security by turning it into a system of risky individual investment accounts, by reducing cost-of-living adjustments or changing the CPI formula,  by raising the retirement age to 69 or 70, thereby cutting benefits for everyone, or by establishing means-testing that would make Social Security more like welfare than social insurance; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME reject all proposals to privatize Medicare by turning it over to private insurance companies, to cut benefits, to raise the age of Medicare eligibility beyond 65, to cancel the Medicare provisions of the Affordable Care Act, and to shift medical costs to seniors and people with disabilities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME supports proposals to strengthen the financial solvency of state unemployment insurance trust funds, which have had to borrow millions of dollars from the federal government because of the depth of the recent recession.  AFSCME will continue to oppose proposals that undermine the social insurance character of the program, such as establishment of private accounts, the imposition of education or drug testing requirements, and work or training requirements that condition receipt of benefits on factors other than the work history of the individual; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME undertake a campaign to educate members and the general public on the history and value of social insurance in the United States, so that anti-government special interests can never undermine, privatize or eliminate Social Security, Medicare or Unemployment Insurance – all reliable government programs that are indispensable to the financial security of average Americans.