Billionaires for Retirement INsecurity

Billionaires for Retirement INsecurity

Yesterday I joined friends from Social Security Works, OWL – The Voice of Midlife and Older Women, Social Security Matters, the Alliance for Retired Americans, the Economic Policy Institute, and others outside of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center as Pete Peterson (you know him, he’s the one who is trying to scare everyone into thinking that Social Security is on its last legs – don’t worry, it isn’t) hosted a closed-door meeting of millionaires and billionaires, at which cutting Social Security was a primary point of discussion. 

We assembled under the banner of “Billionaires for Social INSecurity,” some wearing ball gowns and tuxedos to ask passersby if they would like to hand over their future Social Security checks – because that’s just what Peterson and his acolytes want you to do. 

The purpose of the protest, which was organized by Social Security Works, was to show the people outside the building exactly what was going on inside: wealthy people, detached from the financial realities facing most ordinary Americans, were scheming to cut Social Security benefits, a move that would hurt low- and moderate-income wage earners the most.  

Here are some of the tongue-in-cheek messages that the pretend billionaires conveyed to the lunchtime crowds.

– “We’re all in it together, sort of.”
– “It’s a crisis because we say so.”
– “Just because we busted the budget doesn’t mean we should pay for it.”
– “Feeling entitled to cut your entitlements.”

To see pictures and video of the event, visit our Facebook page.

Kudos to the folks at Social Security Works for putting this event together. To learn more about Social Security – and how it isn’t broken – check out the group’s series of blog entries about how Social Security works for women, people with disabilities, people of color, and veterans.