“I have…
By Matthew Monks
The Federal Reserve chairman’s suggestion to cut back Social Security will jeopardize millions of seniors like Fania Nessenbaum, one of dozens who signed U.S. Senator Charles Schumer’s petition to fight the proposal on Friday in Forest Hills.
“I have very small Social Security (payments),” said Nessenbaum, a retired Revlon employee from Forest Hills. “If they cut it, I will not have enough to eat.”
Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged her and other members of the Forest Hills Self Help Senior Center to join his effort to petition the federal government to protect full Social Security benefits for current and future retirees. The senator gathered signatures at the center for a national petition he plans to eventually send to the president and all congressional and senate members.
He hopes to gather 1 million signatures for the petition, which is in response to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s proposal in February to deal with the escalating budget deficit by cutting benefits for future Social Security retirees. He warned that without action, long-term interest rates would rise, hurting the economy.
His proposals would slash benefits for millions of New Yorkers, Schumer warned. Such cuts would force a return to the dark days before Social Security, he said, when 65 percent of seniors lived in poverty, eating dog food to get by.
“Social Security is the most successful government program of the 20th century,” he said. “You ought to be able to have a modicum of peace (after retirement), and that’s what it did.”
Americans deserve the right to work hard, support their families and retire knowing they will live comfortably the rest of their lives, as most now do with the help of Social Security, Schumer said. One in six Americans gets Social Security benefits, which average $900 a month, he said. And 90 percent of people over 65 get monthly payments. The program also provides benefits to disabled workers and to the families of people who died on the job, he said.
But he said some politicians are endangering the program by threatening to reach into the nearly $1 trillion Social Security Trust Fund to offset the budget deficit, he said. Untouched, the fund should remain solvent until 2042, he said, which guarantees that another generation of retirees will be protected.
“So the bottom line is, it has plenty of money,” Schumer said. “Government should not dip into the Social Security till to balance the budget, plain and simple.”
Since launching the petition three weeks ago, Schumer has been touring the state and gathering signatures. A nationwide effort, senators in other states are doing the same, he said. He said the petition has been well-received, garnering thousands of names.
The petition states: “The Social Security Trust Fund is currently projected to remain solvent until 2042, and the average monthly Social Security benefit is only $900 per month. We disagree with those who believe that this is too much to promise seniors who have worked hard, paid into the system and made an honest living. We believe it would be wrong to balance the budget by breaking our promise to America’s seniors.”
Those interested in signing the petition can visit www.schumer.senate.gov.
“If we can get a million signatures what will we do?” Schumer asked. “We’ll put a dagger through the heart of this (move) to cut Social Security.”
Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
