letter to benator

The Honorable E. Benjamin Nelson,

I am writing to say that I caught your latest media appearances on the Daily Show earlier this week and on NPR's Morning Edition this morning. Thank you for promoting our great state with your kind words and enthusiasm, I don't think Nebraska could ask for a better booster.

I would like to address my concerns to you today regarding Social Security reform. While I appreciate your willingness to listen to the President and his proposals, I am sure you are aware that there are other proposals available for ensuring the solvency of the fund.

Social Security is, and should be, insurance against poverty. Any changes to the program that in any way limit or jeopardize the guaranteed benefits paid to our retired or disabled population are not acceptable. Programs like Social Security, from my perspective, should be more about collective assurance than personal responsibility. As a community we should assure everyone that there will be something for them at the end of their career, or in the event of a tragedy that renders them unable to work.

Some people will be unlucky in life, or make a poor decision that affects their retirement savings. Should these individuals be left to the market for their safety net?

The proposal to privatize Social Security is more about shrinking the federal government than about ensuring quality of life and security of benefits. With some programs, and in some circumstances, the leanest most efficient federal government is not what is best to fit our needs. Some federal programs should cost a lot of money and do more than they need to. Our military needs to be more than the bare minimum to defend our borders because it needs to do more than that to enforce our interests. Likewise, Social Security must be more than the bare minimum necessary to pay some benefit to our retirees, it needs to provide a guarantee against poverty; a guarantee that is secure against the fluctuations of the market and the winds of personal fortune.

Private, tax deferred retirement accounts are great. Everyone should have one. There are myriad financial products that allow people to save their money and control their investments, manage their risk and plan for retirement. The federal government does not need to add redundant private social security accounts to the IRAs and 401Ks currently available.

While it is clear that, based on current projections, the Social Security trust fund will stop growing at some point in the future I do not feel that diverting all or part of my social security contributions to a private account will do anything to change that course. In fact, logically, diverting contributions away from the fund can only hasten its insolvency.

Please try to find a way to save social security for all Americans without privatization and without leaving the least of our citizens behind. That's the job we entrusted to you. Do good work.

Yr. Obt. Svt.