Disability Action Center NW, Inc.

NCIL Action Alert on Social Security

National Council on Independent Living
www.ncil.org

Social Security

Mine, yours, and ours …

Fix it, for good.

Next week is an important week for Social Security. On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on Social Security and proposals to "fix it." Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley will hear from four witnesses who have proposed plans that the Social Security Administration says would make the system permanently solvent. This will be the first legislative step toward producing a bill. NCIL's concern is that proposed legislation with private accounts could result in major benefit cuts and massive new government borrowing, and could destroy the social insurance system many people with disabilities and their families depend on to live and work independently in their communities!

The President is more than halfway through his "60 cities in 60 days" tour. This unsuccessful tour has not rallied support for replacing Social Security with private accounts. Audiences at these "tour" stops have NOT been a cross-section of American workers. Yet Congress is moving to shape legislation -- without the support of the American people!

Did you know that 3 in every 10 men and one in every four women become disabled before retiring? This affects not only the individual but also his/her spouse and children. More than one-third of all monthly Social Security checks go to 17 million people who are not retired -- including over seven million people with disabilities and their families. A new study by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service found that private accounts would eventually wipe out and replace guaranteed Social Security benefits for everyone, beginning with those who are born next year.

Now is the time to act, and be united! Join or organize rallies in your local communities to protect Social Security! Youth, aging Americans and other national organizations are mobilizing people in opposition to the private accounts, and in support of keeping Social Security a guaranteed insurance benefit people can count on. To find rally information in your state, click here: http://www.chn.org/pdf/SocSecRallyApril26.pdf. Be the disability presence in your local rally!

Contact your Senators and Representative. Tell them YOUR story. Tell them that Social Security is ESSENTIAL for people with disabilities and their families to live and work in their communities, not institutions

Write to your local papers. Tell your story. Give them the facts.

Attached to this alert are two important tools:

A NCIL Fact Sheet on Social Security
NCIL's Statement of Values on Social Security and Private Accounts

Educate others. Use these documents any way you can! Share them with your Congresspeople, your newspapers, your neighbors, your community!