Talking Point

We need to make it possible for all Americans to retire with dignity at the end of a lifetime of work. That means protecting Social Security and mandating corporations treat their employees the same as their executives when it comes to health and retirement benefits.

Prominent Republicans have come out publicly in past weeks stating that, given the chance in 2007, they will push Social Security privatization again. This includes...

• President Bush and his Chief of Staff Josh Bolten

• Treasurer Secretary Henry Paulson

• House Majority Leader John Boehner

• And other key Republicans

The Republicans apparently haven't learned their lesson from the 2005 defeat of privatization: the American public, armed with the facts, will overwhelmingly reject privatization for the bad deal that it is.

Americans need to save more for their retirement. That requires personal responsibility in a culture of consumerism. We can help by running an economy that rewards work and not just wealth. In a full-employment economy, wages go up and workers are better able to demand decent benefits from employers. The best way to help Americans save is to ensure that their wages are going up faster than their basic costs.

The effort to privatize Social Security is an open scandal. It would increase risk, decrease security; cut benefits to people disabled at work and leave more seniors in poverty. We must strengthen this basic retirement guarantee.

Just as in 2005, the public can ensure that Republican leadership doesn't forget: There is NO public mandate for Social Security privatization. By an almost two-to-one margin, according to Democracy Corps surveys, the public says it will not support trading guaranteed retirement security and the most successful antipoverty program in the country's history for guaranteed benefit cuts and guaranteed risks on Wall Street. Grassroots campaigns across the country will revive the drive to save Social Security.