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United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) Conference, Stamford, CT March 25, 2012 Selected audio from plenary sessions and panel discussions

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Deficit Commission Co-Chairs Propose Deep Cuts to Social Security Benefits

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Interview with Maria Freese, director of government relations and policy at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, conducted by Scott Harris

socialsecurity The co-chairs of President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform dropped a bombshell on Nov. 10, when they released a set of controversial proposals designed to rein in America's ballooning debt. The co-chairs, former U.S. senator from Wyoming Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, chief of staff under President Clinton, presented a set of recommendations that include: raising the Social Security retirement age to 69 by 2075; substantial cuts in Social Security and Medicare benefits; capping both government expenditures and revenue at 21 percent of GDP; eliminating 200,000 federal jobs by 2020; raising the federal gas tax by 15 cents per gallon; reducing the corporate income tax; eliminating the mortgage interest deduction; reducing the number of U.S. troops in Europe and Asia and canceling some Pentagon weapons programs.

The co-chairs' draft report was greeted with strong objections from both the left and right. But analysis of the plan found that the proposal depended more on spending cuts than increased revenue, tied closely to conservative doctrine. However, most observers believe its unlikely that the full 18-member commission report, due by Dec. 1, will receive the 14 votes required to send along a deficit reduction plan to Congress.

Between the Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Maria Freese, director of government relations and policy at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. She explains why her group opposes deep cuts to Social Security, and the need to organize a strong coalition to resist efforts to place the burden of deficit reduction on the backs of the poor and middle class.

MARIA FREESE: We have been concerned about this commission ever since President Obama created it by executive order. We have been trying to communicate with them to make sure that they understood what our views were. We would start with the argument that Social Security does not belong in this discussion, period. Social Security -- this is a deficit commission, as you mentioned -- Social Security is not contributing to the deficit. In fact, it's still in surplus. Its trillions of dollars in its trust fund have been accumulated over the years because babyboomers have been overpaying their payroll taxes partly so that they could build up these surpluses so that they could draw down on them as they started to retire.

So, this is really not necessary to do this right now. Yes, 30 years out there's a little gap in anticipated benefits coming in -- revenue coming in vs. benefits that are going to be paid out. But, it's almost 30 years out in the future and at this point, it's just projected. What they have done is they are locking into statute -- if they decide to do these recommendations -- much deeper cuts than you would end up with if you just did nothing and let the trust funds all be paid be out as benefits.

So, we're very troubled by it. They basically took every bad idea that has been out there and they've combined it into one proposal. We're mostly focused on Social Security because that's the program that we think people are least likely to understand. They're people who have opposed Social Security and have spent so much money over the past 10 years trying to convince people that it's in crisis and it's almost bankrupt and it's not going to be there for them and all that -- that we feel we're fighting this tidal wave to try to make sure that people understand that it's actually in much better financial condition than they've been led to believe. So, we're not surprised by these proposals.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Maria, what's the process ahead? What happens next with this commission and what will the now-divided Congress do with any proposals that might come out of this commission?

MARIA FREESE: Well, that's actually a very good question, Scott. What we have been told -- and there's not a whole lot of information that you can get about this commission -- but what we've been told, is their committees are going to be meeting to review the co-chairs' proposal and to see if they have their own proposals. They have been encouraged to bring their own proposals to the table.

And then, presumably they will figure out whether there is a critical mass of votes for any piece or -- I find it almost impossible to believe they would get 14 votes for the entire package. The question we don't know is: Are there component pieces of this that can get 14 votes? Or get 10 votes or 12 votes?

Congress is committed, the Senate has committed -- (Senate Majority Leader Harry) Sen. Reid (D-Nev.) back in the spring, I believe, committed to holding a vote if they can get 14 votes, holding a vote in the Senate, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed if a bill passed in the Senate, she would bring it up in the House.

There's not a lot of time left for this to happen this calendar year. And in fact, it's not clear whether technically they're going to be able to do it because of the need to actually get some revenue scores. This proposal is very -- shall we say -- opaque in terms of how much money it's actually going to raise. So they're going to have get some hard and fast numbers before many people want to vote on it. It's a possibility that you could still end up with a vote in the next month. But personally, I think it's a long shot.

Where the danger I believe is -- I see in this proposal -- is that if it appears as though there is some consensus behind pieces, Social Security in particular, I could see parts of it or all of it as part of the president's budget submission next year. I could see fiscally conservative Republicans, in particular in the House, insisting on some of these changes in exchange for their willingness to vote for the increase in the debt limit that's going to be facing them in the early spring. So this issue is not going to go away.

BETWEEN THE LINES: The Republican party, for many years now, has had a mission to destroy the nation's social safety net and particularly, the New Deal programs put in place under Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Great Depression. Is there a viable coalition that you're working with now, that will rise up to oppose deep cuts in Social Security and the other elements of the nation's social safety net?

MARIA FREESE: We are constantly out trying to put together other coalitions, get support from other groups. Part of the problem is that up until now is that no one really believed the program was at risk. Because no one really believed this, that they were going after Social Security. And that's why, frankly, I'm hoping that one of the things we're going to be able to achieve out of this co-chairs' report is, we're going finally to be able convince people that there is a serious risk here and it's a serious risk moving forward, that elements -- very bad elements of this proposal -- will end up resurfacing and will end up actually being implemented. And that's a bad thing for the country and it's a bad thing frankly, for Americans, and for middle-income Americans.

Contact the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare by calling (202) 216-0420 or visit their website at NCPSSM.org

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