Full Text of HR0654 94th General Assembly
HR0654 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
|
|
|
HR0654 |
|
LRB094 14677 MKM 49638 r |
|
| 1 |
| HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 |
| WHEREAS, Social Security is a public insurance program that | 3 |
| aims to provide Americans with a minimal level of income once | 4 |
| they have reached retirement age, while providing individual | 5 |
| equity by returning a higher benefit to those that have paid | 6 |
| more into the system over their history in the workforce; and
| 7 |
| WHEREAS, Social Security became law under the | 8 |
| administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during | 9 |
| the Great Depression, when half of the country's senior | 10 |
| population relied upon another person for their livelihood; and
| 11 |
| WHEREAS, Social Security now provides essential financial | 12 |
| assistance nationwide and to nearly 2 million Illinois senior | 13 |
| citizens, disabled individuals, and survivors who depend on | 14 |
| their $20 billion in payments as the sole route to a life of | 15 |
| dignity and independence; and
| 16 |
| WHEREAS, Millions nationwide and more than 569,000 | 17 |
| Illinois senior citizens would live in poverty were it not for | 18 |
| their monthly Social Security benefit; and
| 19 |
| WHEREAS, The demographic climate of the United States is | 20 |
| beginning to change; the Baby Boomer Generation will begin to | 21 |
| retire in the year 2008, dramatically increasing the percentage | 22 |
| of the American senior population and placing a heavy burden on | 23 |
| the Social Security system; and
| 24 |
| WHEREAS, The growth in our country's labor force is | 25 |
| expected to decrease to only 25% of what it has been in the | 26 |
| last century, further burdening the Social Security system due | 27 |
| to the lack of payroll tax revenue; and
| 28 |
| WHEREAS, It is estimated that the balance of the Social | 29 |
| Security Trust Fund, which has been accumulating a surplus |
|
|
|
HR0654 |
- 2 - |
LRB094 14677 MKM 49638 r |
|
| 1 |
| since 1983, will begin to pay out more in benefits than it | 2 |
| receives in revenue in the year 2017; and
| 3 |
| WHEREAS, Although the Social Security Trust Fund has been | 4 |
| accumulating a surplus since 1983, and that surplus has now | 5 |
| reached nearly $1.8 trillion, the federal government borrows | 6 |
| from that Trust Fund annually to fund other government | 7 |
| spending; and
| 8 |
| WHEREAS, There is now much discussion about reforming the | 9 |
| Social Security system to ensure its financial viability, and | 10 |
| those reform options vary from making very small adjustments to | 11 |
| making sweeping changes to the program; and
| 12 |
| WHEREAS, One of the most discussed reform options is | 13 |
| privatization, which involves taking a portion of revenue | 14 |
| coming into the Social Security Trust Fund and placing it in | 15 |
| personal retirement accounts for individuals who choose to | 16 |
| participate; and
| 17 |
| WHEREAS, It has been shown that privatization of the Social | 18 |
| Security system can lead to a variety of problems, including, | 19 |
| increasing the national debt, forcing participants to pay | 20 |
| exorbitantly high administrative fees, reducing the promised | 21 |
| benefits for participants, and ultimately taking away the | 22 |
| security of a steady retirement income; and
| 23 |
| WHEREAS, Privatization of Social Security was tried in the | 24 |
| United Kingdom, pronounced a failure, and now faces an overhaul | 25 |
| using the current United States Social Security system as a | 26 |
| model; and
| 27 |
| WHEREAS, The changing demographics of the United States may | 28 |
| cause stress on the Social Security system, but making smaller | 29 |
| adjustments to the program that has performed so effectively | 30 |
| over the last 70 years is a better option than making sweeping |
|
|
|
HR0654 |
- 3 - |
LRB094 14677 MKM 49638 r |
|
| 1 |
| changes that would undermine the very philosophy of the | 2 |
| program; and
| 3 |
| WHEREAS, In response to published reports that the United | 4 |
| States Congress was preparing to make extraordinary and | 5 |
| unnecessary modifications to the Social Security system, | 6 |
| Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan and members of the | 7 |
| Illinois House of Representatives have conducted a series of | 8 |
| regional forums, modeled on a previously successful series of | 9 |
| statewide summits to review the State's budget and fiscal | 10 |
| circumstances, to educate the public on the current status and | 11 |
| future of the Social Security System in recent months; and
| 12 |
| WHEREAS, The overwhelming reaction from Illinois citizens | 13 |
| who have attended the forums and from highly respected | 14 |
| non-partisan organizations that advocate on behalf of Illinois | 15 |
| consumers, working families, and senior citizens has been that | 16 |
| the current level of benefits to Social Security beneficiaries | 17 |
| must be maintained and annually adjusted to keep pace with the | 18 |
| rate of inflation, that federal lawmakers and the President | 19 |
| stop borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund to fund | 20 |
| other government spending, and that privatization of Social | 21 |
| Security not be undertaken; therefore, be it
| 22 |
| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 23 |
| NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 24 |
| we urge President George Walker Bush and the United States | 25 |
| Congress to resist radical and risky changes that could | 26 |
| jeopardize the retirements of millions of Americans and make | 27 |
| only the modest adjustments necessary to maintain the integrity | 28 |
| of the Social Security system for decades to come; and be it | 29 |
| further
| 30 |
| RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 31 |
| delivered to the President of the United States of America, the | 32 |
| Vice President of the United States of America, and to |
|
|
|
HR0654 |
- 4 - |
LRB094 14677 MKM 49638 r |
|
| 1 |
| Illinois' United States Senators and United States | 2 |
| Representatives.
|
|