Public Employee Press

Last part of a series on threats to a secure retirement.

Bush's greatest defeat

The day after George Bush was re-elected last year, the swaggering Texan confidently told the media about his “mandate” to carry out his domestic agenda. At the top of the list was privatizing Social Security.

Alarmed, AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee met with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to urge them to unite the Democratic Party against the Bush plan.

As the Democrats prepared for legislative warfare, AFSCME helped build a network of community organizations, unions and other progressive groups to organize the battle in the trenches. Starting in 33 states, the new Americans United to Protect Social Security mobilized for a nationwide campaign against privatization.

“This was probably one of the most extensive and effective grassroots issue campaigns that has ever been conducted,” said Brad Woodhouse, communications director of the new group.

From February through September this year, Americans United organized 1,300 events throughout the country. Its army of supporters, including DC 37 members and retirees, participated in rallies, conference calls, public forums and lobbying efforts. Activists gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures on petitions against privatization and put in thousands of calls to politicians.

All told, AFSCME invested $1.2 million in its successful grassroots fight to save Social Security from being eliminated as a government-run program that guarantees Americans a steady retirement income. Bush’s plan would have created a privatized system providing billions to Wall Street for managing individual investment accounts while leaving seniors’ retirement income at risk in the stock market.

After facing months of solid opposition, the battered president was forced to throw in the towel. “Social Security, for me, is never off,” said Bush Oct. 4. But, he added, “When the appetite to address it is — that’s going to be up to Congress.”

A month later, a key Republican senator acknowledged that the plan was dead. Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said Congress would probably not take up the Social Security issue until 2009 — after Bush leaves the White House.

“This is Bush’s biggest domestic defeat,” said Chuck Loveless, AFSCME’s legislation director. “This was at the top of the president’s agenda for his second term. The fact that it is now on life support is a testament to our work.”

— Gregory N. Heires