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Netroots Nation: Strengthening Social Security

One attendee of the Netroots Nation panel provocatively titled “Obama’s Social Security ‘Death Panel’” later told me he had gone into the panel dubious that there is any real threat to Social Security. “But I left mad,” he said, questioning how such an important part of America’s social fabric could be threatened. Yet as the panelists detailed, Social Security is most definitely under attack–and it’s an attack that could fundamentally alter how we understand the program.

Panelists agreed the most direct assaults on Social Security takes are likely to be defeated, as the privatization of the program was in 2005. But they pointed to a more nuanced threat. Robert Borosage of Campaign for America’s Future contrasted the “frightened, timid and cautious leadership” of today with the “confident society” that, following World War II, responded to a much larger deficit (as percentage of GDP) by embarking on a series of spending programs that reshaped the economy and built the middle class.

Today, Borosage said, there is an emerging elite consensus that is “focused on Social Security because it will show they’re ’serious,’ even though it will have no effect on the deficit.” They portray Social Security as being in crisis, then claim that proposed cuts are “saving” the program. Eric Kingson, co-director of Social Security Works, made it clear that Social Security is not in crisis.

Social Security should and can work for the next 75 years.

“But it’s up to all of us” to defend it. Crucially, defending Social Security

is not about dollars and cents and it’s not about balancing the books. It’s about how well the American people do—all of us.

The elite consensus will, unfortunately, drive too much of what happens on a policy level. But what about working people? As a panelist myself, I spoke about what Working America organizers hear in the field every night, on the doorsteps of thousands of working Americans. Working people are deeply worried that their Social Security benefits will be cut, but too much of what they hear is dominated by fear-mongering claims that Social Security is in crisis. If the progressive movement doesn’t reach out to working people with the message that Social Security is not in trouble, we allow its enemies to define the debate. And if the debate begins with the assumption that cuts are needed to “save” the program, we’re stuck fighting against backward movement. Instead, we need to be fighting our way forward by providing working people information that shifts the debate forward.

That fight “is going to be the battle of our lives,” according to the blogger Digby. She referred back to the successful fight against privatization in 2005 and highlighted the importance of repetition: For every time opponents of Social Security say it’s in crisis, its defenders have to say “no, it’s not.” Or “strengthen Social Security—don’t cut it.” (And make no mistake, raising the eligibility age is a cut.) As progressive bloggers and individuals and organizations, she emphasized, we have to use every tool at our disposal to amplify those simple messages.

Tags: social security