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Speak Up Memo

The Voice of Young Conservatives

THE WEEK OF MARCH 8, 2010

The Outrage
Used and forgotten. In 2008, young people gave Democrats their vote and in 2009
Democrats showed young people the door. Well it’s time to tell the Democrats to stop
and listen up. From health care to student loan reform, Democratic policies have
consistently ignored the needs of our generation. !If we want change, 2010 must be
di"erent.
!
What You Can Do About It
Speak up! As a conservative we must begin to win hearts and minds before we can win
elections. The process starts by educating people about what we truly believe. It starts
with you in the classroom.
!
When your friend tells you they voted for Obama, speak up. When you hear someone
saying that Republicans don’t have the answers, speak up. If a professor lectures you on
the need for government health care, speak up.
!
We’ll arm you with the facts you need to win the argument. It’s your job to carry the
message on to your campus. It’s your job to speak up! By engaging ourselves in the
debate, we’ll spread the message of conservatism – the message of small government,
fiscal responsibility, and individual rights – to one campus, one classroom, and one
student at a time.

Over the next five weeks the CRNC will be looking into the growing entitlements that
left unreformed will doom this country’s fiscal future. We must realize that government is
not the solution to the problem…it IS the problem.

This Week’s Theme: Social Security


The Promise: “If we care about Social Security, which I do, and if we are firm in our
commitment to make sure that it’s going to be there for the next generation, and not just
for our generation, then we have an obligation to figure out how to stabilize the system. I
think we should be honest in presenting our ideas in terms of how we’re going to do that

A weekly publication by the College Republican National Committee. Copyright 2010.


and not just say that we’re going to form a commission and try to solve the problem some
other way.” – Philadelphia Primary Debate Apr, 16 2008

The Reality: Barack Obama’s only “commitment” has been to continually ignore the
problem. His recently released budget, which totals $8.5 trillion over the next decade,
does nothing to alter the bleak fiscal picture of Social Security. Even worse, it trivializes
the problem by proposing a $250 one-time payment to Social Security recipients to help
seniors who aren’t receiving their cost-of-living boost because of the poor economy. 250
bucks? Really? That’s his long term plan?

Fact 1: The Status Quo is Unsustainable

Social Security was created in 1935 in an e"ort to protect workers from falling into poverty
during their senior years. Unfortunately, there is no program to prevent Social Security
from falling into poverty as it grows older. A report produced by the Social Security
Trustees shows that the program has promised more benefits than it can a"ord to pay.
The result: Social Security will begin to run deficits in 2017, a mere 7 years from now, and
its funds will be exhausted by 2041. To give you a sense of the pure scope of its failings:
between today and 2075, the inflation adjusted shortfall is projected to reach $20 trillion.
Yes, you read that correctly…$20 trillion. Since the founding of this nation, the
government, with all of its wars, entitlements, and programs has only managed to amass a
$12 trillion dollar debt. But Social Security alone will nearly double 234 years worth of our
nation’s spending.

Fact 2: The Government Isn’t Following Its Own Rules

There are numerous reasons for the grip future of Social Security, not the least of which is
demographic changes. But baby boomers have become the scapegoat for the
government’s lack of foresight and misrepresentations. Put simply – Congress lied to the
American people. In the original rules, set up by the 1935 Social Security Act, each wage
earner paid into a personal account from which their retirement benefits would later
come. Somewhere along the line those rules got tossed by the wayside, without so much
as a word to the workers a"ected. As Congressman Ron Paul explained,
“Social Security contributions are supposed to be set aside from
general revenues and placed in a trust fund.! The truth, of course, is
that your contributions are not put aside. Over the decades
Congress found itself simply unable to sit on a big pile of money, so

A weekly publication by the College Republican National Committee. Copyright 2010.


it began treating Social Security contributions as general revenues
to fund the ever-growing federal government.! Today your Social
Security account is nothing more than a ledger filled with IOUs.”

Fact 3: Our Generation is Resigned to Failure

Guess who has to pay those IOUs Ron Paul talked about. That’s right…our generation
which goes a long way toward explaining why a recent Zogby poll shows we are rather
pessimistic when it comes to Social Securities’ future:

Overall 18-29 30-49 50-64 65+


You Your You Your You Your You Your You Your
Children Children Children Children Children
Yes 42 18 18 23 23 10 62 18 89 29
No 35 54 62 63 47 67 16 45 4 26
Not 22 29 21 14 30 23 22 37 8 45
Sure
The only person not willing to admit there is a problem is Harry Reid, who when faced
with the Trustees report that showed Social Security beginning to run deficits in less
than a decade, stated,

“Today’s report confirms that the so-called Social Security crisis exists in
only one place — the minds of Republicans. In reality, the program is on
solid ground for decades to come.”

Bottom Line: Although Harry Reid won’t admit it, we’ve caught on. Social Security
represents yet another example of a government program failing due to mismanagement
and lack of foresight. In this case, it has likely cost our generation its ability to retire with a
sense of financial stability. The risks of having the government involved in health care are
even higher where bankruptcy puts lives at risk.

A weekly publication by the College Republican National Committee. Copyright 2010.

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