January, 1999
Labor Party Press
Social
Security
(story continued from page four)
As delegates met in Pittsburgh, ominous rumblings
were coming out of Washington, D.C., where Bill Clinton and other Democrats and
Republicans were gearing up for an assault on our hard-won Social Security system.
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Photo İHarvey Finkle, Impact Visuals |
On Saturday, delegates passed a resolution calling on the Labor Party to
"wage a vigorous campaign of public hearings and education" in the labor
movement to protect Social Security and to oppose any privatization. The resolution notes
that President Clinton, Congress, and Wall Street have all hopped on the Social Security
privatization bandwagon — even though the system is in fact "completely sound
for the next 50 years." A bipartisan effort to partially privatize Social Security,
the delegates agreed, "would be tantamount to construction of a Trojan horse that
will penetrate the Social Security system and ultimately undermine it."
The resolution commits the Labor Party to oppose any cut in SSI benefits,
any increase in eligibility thresholds, and any effort to use trust fund surpluses to
finance a tax cut.
Delegates had a lively discussion about whether the Labor Party should
call for eliminating the Social Security payroll tax earnings cap, which allows income
over $64,000 a year to be exempted from Social Security taxation. In the end, delegates
adopted a change in the resolution to say that the Labor Party "supports examining
increases in employer tax rates and eliminating the payroll tax earning cap."
Delegates unanimously supported the proposal that the Labor Party should
"wage a vigorous campaign of public hearings and education" on protecting Social
Security, as well as an "intensive training program" on the issues for our own
constituency and beyond.
• Resolution: Protect
Social Security
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