WHEREAS, More than 47 million people will receive Social Security benefits this year, in which the average monthly retirement benefit is approximately $879.70; and
WHEREAS, Social Security’s projected shortfall over the next 75 years is $3.5 trillion dollars; and
WHEREAS, Social Security will pay out more in benefits than it collects in payroll taxes by 2018; and
WHEREAS, By the year 2030, over 70 million Americans are projected to be retired, which is twice the amount of people retired today; and
WHEREAS, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has made recent remarks about the coming insolvency of Social Security and Medicare, in which he acknowledged that in the near future the federal government will be unable to pay what it has promised to recipients of Social Security and Medicare; and
WHEREAS, Among those remarks, Greenspan suggested raising the retirement age and changing the way the government calculates cost-of-living increases to reduce payouts; and
WHEREAS, Greenspan further suggested that government must either increase Social Security taxes or reduce benefits or both to maintain the program as millions and millions of baby boomers retire; and
WHEREAS, Medicare's financial health is even in a worse position, in that the federal government’s newly passed prescription drug coverage will strain the health care program even more; and
WHEREAS, Ken Moritsugu’s article written in the February 29, 2004 Sunday’s Inquirer indicated that Congress’s immediate reaction to Greenspan’s statement was that a serious discussion on this issue was not a priority, and that it was in fact being “shunned”; now therefore
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we call on the Pennsylvania Congressional and Senatorial Delegations to support and vote on legislative initiatives that protect and preserve Social Security; and
FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution be forwarded to Congressmen Robert Brady and Chaka Fattah and Senators Arlen Specter and Rick Santorium.
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