RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, on April 14, 1935, the Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt, and has helped children, the elderly, and those with disabilities to stay above the poverty level for over seventy years; and

WHEREAS, without Social Security today, almost fifty per cent of the United States' senior population would live in poverty due to a shortage of saved income, pension funds, and the rising cost of inflation as compared to the approximate ten per cent who actually live in poverty; and

WHEREAS, without Social Security, many of our elderly would live in poverty due to a shortage of saved income, pension funds, and also the rising cost of inflation; now, therefore,

WHEREAS, because of this effect, Social Security is one of the most successful insurance programs ever created; and

WHEREAS, opponents of Social Security believe that baby boomers, when they become dependents of the system, will skew the proportion of working adults to Social Security recipients down to 1.27 in 2030, thereby depleting the Social Security reserve to zero by 2042; and

WHEREAS, although this is seen as a pitfall, the ratio of workers to dependents is still relatively comparable to that of the ratio in 1960, where there were 1.5 workers contributing to funds for each dependent; and

WHEREAS, when Social Security was created, it followed a "pay as you go" system, and therefore, Social Security will never go bankrupt and shut down, but will instead revert back to its previous system as it performed before 1984; and

WHEREAS, because of the prediction of foreseen problems related to Social Security, the federal government would like to institute private investment accounts where the initial estimated start up price ranges close to $1,000,000,000,000, but may go up as high as $3,000,000,000,000; and

WHEREAS, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, this plan may result in $1,400,000,000,000 in national debt over the first ten years and add $4,900,000,000,000 in debt over the next ten years; and

WHEREAS, by creating private investment accounts that divert money into private accounts, additional risks such as retirement when stock markets are down, investing in bad stocks, and high management fees must also be taken into consideration; and

WHEREAS, the analogy of fixing the problem of a leaky sink by destroying an entire house is much like what the federal government is planning to do when they eradicate the current Social Security policy and replace it with private investment accounts; and

WHEREAS, Social Security, which is seen as a safety net for retired workers who spend an average of twenty years in retirement after age sixty-five, serves as a protection against inflation due to its cost of living adjustments and allows purchasing power and non-declining benefits; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2006, the House of Representatives concurring, that the President of the United States and the United States Congress are urged not to privatize Social Security; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, and the members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation.

Report Title:

Legislature; Social Security (SD1)