National Nurses United

Social Security 2_FNL with art 12/9/10 10:31 PM Page 17 R ERIC WESTBROOK egistered nurse Deborah Burger's father died at 38, leaving her mother to care for three girls. Because of that and her life's trajectory since then, Burger has a special vantage point from which to view the current political battle over the future of Social Security and Medicare. "If it hadn't been for Social Security, our lives would have been much different," she said. "We were very, very lucky the programs existed. I learned this very early on, especially because I was able to stay in college until I was able to earn a living on m own." y Because of Social Security and veterans benefits, Burger's mother today enjoys some financial security. Together they make it possible for her to pay the rent (though there's not much left over) and Medicare makes it possible for her to get the care she needs and pay for her medications. And as an RN, Burger, a co-president of National Nurses United, said she views Social Security and Medicare almost as preventive health programs. "They are patient lifesavers because they keep people out of the hospital as much as possible, free of grinding poverty and thriving in their retirement," said Burger. Another NNU RN co-president, Karen Higgins of Massachusetts, said she too views the issue both professionally and personally. Her father, a construction worker, died in his forties. Higgins' mother raised six children and today receives only a very small benefit check each month. Higgins said her family members are fortunately in a position to help her mother but not everyone is as lucky. , "More women are living below the poverty level and must depend on Social Security," she said. "They are frequently paid less than men and are also likely to move in and out of the workforce as they raise families and therefore the benefits they receive are less. I think it is disgusting that we should even consider cutting back on Social Security benefits or reducing Medicare provision," said Higgins. Both programs are critically important for women, particularly registered nurses, and plans to cut back benefits and raise the eligibility age could hit RNs particularly hard. "Nurses have worked for years with substandard retirement systems and now there is an effort to reduce them even further," said Jean Ross, RN and the third NNU co-president from Minnesota. "Almost every time we go into negotiation these days management proposes to erode our retirement plans. In fact, defined benefit pensions are disappearing all over the place. Any cutbacks in Social Security will only increase our insecurity and that of others, like our younger nurses, as well." The three NNU leaders reflected on these watershed programs just a few days after the co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, former Sen. Alan Simpson and former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, publicly released a statement Nov. 10 calling for drastic scale backs of Social Security and Medicare without the support of or discussion with the larger commission. The final report, which recommended raising the retirement age to 69 among a host of other changes, was issued in early NOVEMBER 2010 December. "I cannot even fathom nurses at 69 still being required to work," said Higgins. "You need to have the highest mental and physical alertness to be able to provide safe care. The idea that nurses would be able to do that at 69 is dangerous to patients, but forcing us to be in a position that we would ha to is disgraceful." ve Critics of the effort to sharply reduce or eliminate the two programs have taken to calling the body the "Catfood Commission," referring to the danger of indigent seniors being compelled to consume pet food, as has been known to happen. They also point out that blaming Social Security for our national deficit is a red herring since the program is funded through payroll taxes and does not contribute to our debts. As the Congressional holiday recess neared, the fact that the commission had scarcely deliberated, not voted on the report, and that more than 130 members of the House of Representatives had already promised to vote against severe Social Security cutbacks almost guaranteed that no action would be taken by the outgoing Congress. But efforts to permanently undermine Social Security and Medicare are very real and well funded. The stage has now been set for the attacks on Social Security and Medicare to be a major factor in the spring when Congress takes up the federal budget to be submitted by the Obama administration. The release of the Simpson-Bowles recommendations coincided with the launching of a new media campaign by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a group established in 2008 with an endowment of $1 billion by investment banker Peter G. Peterson, a co-founder of the Blackstone Group. The $6 million campaign is titled "OweNo" and employs television advertisements to warn the public about what the foundation characterizes as the danger of the current federal deficit. The two commission heads acknowledged in their statement that the aim of their proposals on Social Security are not intended as steps to reduce the deficit, thereby acknowledging that the program does not contribute to the federal budget shortfall. It underscores what critics of the commission have maintained all along: that what motivates Peterson, Simpson, and Bowles to go after Social Security and Medicare is nothing but ideological—a determination to whittle away whatever remains of the New Deal and Great Society social programs. There was no reason the commission needed to deal with Social Security at all. Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), said it is "striking that they felt the need to address Social Security's solvency even though it was not part of their mandate. The commission's mandate was to deal with the country's fiscal problems. Since Social Security is legally prohibited from ever spending more than it has collected in taxes, it cannot under the law contribute to the deficit." W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N AT I O N A L N U R S E 17

• Cover