Rep. Barbara Lee on Social Secuirt reform

California's Ninth Congressional District Rep. Barbara Lee will be holding a town hall meeting on Social Security tomorrow. Today, she has an op-ed piece in the Oakland Tribune:

People should understand that the centerpiece of what the president has proposed, diverting funds from payroll taxes to create private accounts, does nothing to address his so-called "crisis." In fact, by diverting $2 trillion from the Trust Fund over the first decade to pay for these accounts, it actually makes matters much worse.

The president's proposal would undermine retirement security for all Americans by cutting Social Security's guaranteed benefit by almost 50 percent.

The president's commission on Social Security has recommended cutting benefits to disabled workers to pay for private accounts. Disabled workers would have no access to their private accounts prior to retirement, and because their careers were cut short, would reach retirement with virtually nothing in those accounts.

The proposed benefit cuts are especially hard on minorities and women.

Because minorities are more likely to become disabled or die young, cuts in disability and survivor benefits would have a devastating impact on minority communities, particularly on children.

Without Social Security, 53 percent of all senior women would live in poverty. Because women, on average, have lower salaries and longer life spans than men, under the president's proposal they would have to make smaller private accounts last longer.

It is hard to justify these kinds of cuts knowing that the creation of private accounts would divert almost $1 trillion in transaction fees into the pockets of big corporate interests on Wall Street.