Dismantling social security: race becomes a red herring as conservatives tackle the most popular government program left.

In January, Bush made a special pitch: privatizing is good for the Black man. Black men die earlier than whites, Bush said, so they collect less in Social Security benefits. It turns out that it is Black babies who die at higher rates than whites--not old Black men. But let's talk about the Black man.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Under Bush's plan, the Black man would put his money in a private account and then cash it out at retirement. Actually, if Bush's plan goes through, at retirement, the Black man (and everyone else) would buy an annuity, an insurance policy that sends you a monthly paycheck. According to Yale law professor Michael Graetz, you would have to buy a $50,000 annuity to live at today's official poverty level. That would roughly translate into a monthly check of $278 for a married couple.

There's just one problem. The Black man has a harder time earning as much as whites to put away in a private account. A report from United for a Fair Economy shows that Black median income is 62 percent of white income, and Latinos have earnings that are less than two-thirds that of average white households.

In his concern for the Black man, Bush conveniently didn't mention the Black man's children. One in 16 Black kids receives a Social Security benefit. Social Security is the program that sends children and their caretakers a monthly check when a parent dies. Turning Social Security into a system of private accounts would disproportionately hurt communities of color, which rely more than whites on Social Security as their only form of retirement income. All retirees rely on Social Security for 22 percent of their income. That number jumps to 40 percent for Blacks, 41 percent for Latinos, 28 percent for Asians and 33 percent for Native Americans.

Bush's political strategist Karl Rove has made it clear that privatizing Social Security is a long-term fight for conservatives. They're using the same donors and research institutes employed to put Bush in office. Now, groups like the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities are doing research on the devastating effects of privatizing Social Security. In April, the NAACP kicked off the Save Our Social Security campaign to talk with young people about how privatizing will hurt Black communities.

Because privatizing Social Security has little public support at this point, Rove and the Right appear to be going slowly. But make no mistake: the conservative agenda to dismantle all New Deal and 1960s social programs is not going away. In May, the House Ways and Means Committee began holding hearings on what Republicans are calling "a retirement bill." It addresses issues like making nursing homes more affordable, along with permitting Americans to put away more tax-free dollars for retirement. Presumably, this will make Americans comfortable with the idea of private accounts. Think of it as Step 1 in privatizing Social Security.

RELATED ARTICLE: SOCIAL SECURITY: A SAFETY NET FOR COMMUNITIES OF COLOR

SOCIAL SECURITY

THE WAY IT IS NOW ...                   IF IT'S PRIVATIZED ...

Social Security automatically           You decide to put cash in a
deducts a percentage of your paycheck   private savings account.
for your retirement.
You retire and get your monthly check.  You retire and get whatever you
                                        managed to save. If you put away
                                        $50,000, you can live at the
                                        poverty level in your old age.
If you didn't earn a high salary, you   If you didn't earn a high
receive a bigger percentage of your     salary, you didn't have much to
old income upon retiring. Social        save, and now you have little
Security is a progressive tax.          for retirement.
You get a monthly check until you die.  You get a monthly check until
                                        your private account runs out of
                                        money.
If you're widowed and left with a       If your husband or wife didn't
child, you get a percentage of your     have a large private account,
partner's Social Security benefit       the widow or widower and
until the child turns 18.               children are left behind
                                        penniless.
If you're on disability and you         Assuming that you couldn't work
retire, you get the same monthly check  to put money into private
from Social Security.                   accounts, you would have little
                                        to draw on when you retire.

SOCIAL SECURITY REDUCES POVERTY AMONG BLACKS AND LATINOS AS THEY GROW
OLD

Without Social Security....

60%  of Blacks would be poor
55%  of Latinos would be poor

Note: Table made from bar graph.

RELATED ARTICLE: DID YOU KNOW?

26% of Native Americans would be living in poverty if they did not have Social Security

48% of Black folks who receive survivor benefits are children

$940 billion: the amount of money that would go to banks for fees for managing individual accounts

17% of disabled workers receiving Social Security are Black and 10% are Latino

$7 billion: the amount undocumented immigrants pay annually in Social Security taxes

One in 16 Black children receives a Social Security benefit

31% of people who receive Social Security are the disabled and survivors

Social Security is the equivalent of a disability insurance policy worth $350,000 and a life insurance policy worth $400,000