Saving Social Security: Phase II

[Omaha Steve]

Full article: http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/specialguests/2006/aug/08/saving_social_security_phase_ii

Saving Social Security: Phase II
By Charles Loveless | bio

Last year, we stopped President Bush’s and the GOP Congress’s Social Security privatization scheme dead in its tracks. Today our success – and how progressives did it – took center stage at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Convention in Chicago.

But stay tuned: we just kicked off Phase II of our campaign with new ads in five key states.

As progressives, Social Security is a central pillar in our values system. We believe in a level playing field – that Americans who work hard and play by the rules should retire with stability and dignity. And that’s why AFSCME launched Americans United to Protect Social Security, a campaign that pilloried Bush’s privatization plan in an effort to protect Social Security and prevent massive and harmful benefit cuts.

With funding from AFSCME and other groups, Americans United to Protect Social Security (now Americans United) operated in 35 states across the country and brought tremendous – and in some cases unbearable – pressure to bear on members of Congress to oppose President Bush’s risky and expensive scheme to privatize Social Security. Americans United held over 1,400 events – press conferences, conference calls, town hall meetings, protests of Presidential visits, parades and panel discussions – all of which generated pressure on members of Congress to support Social Security by opposing Bush’s ridiculous scheme to dismantle it through privatization.

It worked. The campaign forced the President to throw in the towel – at least temporarily – on the signature domestic policy initiative of his second term – in less than six months.

All of this, of course, would not have succeeded had the progressive blogosphere not taken up the cause. Particularly, Josh Marshall was and is a leader in pinning down politicians on where they stand on this and other issues.