Tips on Writing Letters to the Editor from Alliance for Retired
Americans
- Letters shouldn't be more than 200 words.
- The subject matter should be relevant to readers, provocative, constructive, timely. Passion is good. So is humor.
- If you are responding to an article include the title and date of the article (preferably in the first few sentences).
- Letters must include the author's full name, address and daytime phone number so the newspaper can verify the letter's authenticity.
and talking points on Social security from Alliance for Retired Americans:
Privatization is bad for Social Security, our economy and our future
- Private accounts drain the Social Security Trust Fund, further weakening the system.
- Privatization will open Social Security to corruption and waste because politicians will decide which Wall Street firms make billions in inflated fees off private accounts.
- Privatization will explode the deficit and saddle our children with $2 trillion in debt.
- Privatization will cut guaranteed benefits by nearly 50%. The average retiree will lose $152,000 in benefits in the 20 years after retirement. (The Century Foundation; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; Center for Economic and Policy Research)
- Privatization will leave many retirees in poverty. Taxpayers and family members will have to provide them with help.
- Privatization makes Americans' retirement LESS secure because risky private accounts won't make up for benefit cuts. For people who choose private accounts, the government will take back 50 cents for every $1 invested. That's on top of the benefit cut caused by privatization.
Social Security faces a challenge, not a crisis
- Americans, particularly younger workers, are being scared into believing that Social Security is doomed. Nothing could be farther from the real truth.
- Social Security is financially sound and hasn't missed a payment in 70 years. It is not in danger of going broke. Social Security will be solvent for the next 40 to 50 years and even after that will be able to pay 80% of benefits.
- Social Security should be shored up, not dismantled and destroyed, to meet its future obligations.
Social Security benefits for future retirees are under attack
- President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security will cost trillions of dollars and seriously drain the Social Security Trust Fund, leaving a lot less money available to pay retirees.
- Benefit cuts are the centerpiece of President Bush's radical plan to destroy Social Security. A current White House idea to calculate benefits based on inflation rather than on earnings would turn back the hands of time and force retirees today to live at a1940s standard of living.
Americans have paid into Social Security for years and deserve the full benefits they earned
- Social Security is the only stable, guaranteed benefit on which millions of Americans plan their retirement security.
- Social Security is calculated against earned wages and not indexed to annual inflation rates, thus guaranteeing older Americans a secure and safe source of retirement funding.
- All Americans should be encouraged to save for their retirement through private accounts. However, private saving should supplement, not replace, Social Security's guaranteed benefits.
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