This presentation, given at RAISE Florida Network's 2013 First Quarter Annual Meeting, discusses strategies for identifying and engaging legislators in order to promote an asset-building agenda.

Massive cuts are being proposed which will impact the way in which Social Security and Medicaid are allocated in the United States. The Obama administration has floated a plan known as chained Consumer Price Index (CPI) along with a goal of trimming healthcare funding for the poor and elderly by $400 billion.

These efforts are purportedly connected with the need to trim the federal budget deficit. A “sequester” was imposed earlier this year which is already resulting in furloughs for government workers, lay-offs in the healthcare industry and the elimination of programs which have benefitted low-income people for decades.

The chained CPI will lead to severe reductions of the limited increases in payments based upon the rise in inflation and the cost of living. These reforms, if instituted, would also be applied to benefits received by retired government employees, veterans and recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

In a recent study released by the Center for Global Policy Solutions (CGPS), the research institute placed the Obama administration proposals within a broader sociological context where the historic national oppression of African Americans has rendered this community to lower-wages and accumulated household wealth. Compounding this centuries-old reality, the economic crisis of the last five years has also disproportionately driven down the living standards of African Americans and other peoples of color.

After retirement African Americans face even lower incomes through pensions and social security payments which are based on earnings during the last few years of their employment. Any cuts to the incremental increases in monthly payments for retirees can only result in deeper economic challenges and poverty.

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With specific reference to Medicaid, the Joint Center for Economic and Political Studies (JCEPS) wrote over a year ago that reductions in funding for this program would cause tremendous suffering among the African American and Latino populations. The same research institute argues that these cuts would in fact increase costs for healthcare companies since people would still need care whether it is funded by the government or not.

The report, Medicaid: A Lifeline for Blacks and Latinos with Serious Health Care Needs, published by Families USA, “reveals that making cuts to Medicaid fails to reduce costs, instead it shifts the burden to states, families, hospitals and the uninsured. In fact, in some cases, the report notes, cutting assistance for treatment can actually increase costs over the long run.”

JCEPS continues pointing out that “As policymakers consider sharp cutbacks in the Medicaid program, this report brings an important potential consequence of their actions to the table – that cutting Medicaid will likely hit hardest at communities of color and, in particular, those who depend on the program to manage and treat their chronic illnesses,” said Ralph B. Everett, president and CEO of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. (October 2011)

Read more at Global Research.

Dr. Wilhelmina Leigh spoke on the whys and hows of Social Security modernization at the National Academy of Social Insurance's 25th Annual Policy Research Conference on January 31, 2013.

More presentations, videos, and other conference materials can be found on the NASI website.

This slide show discusses how Social Security benefits truly help those who receive them. Presented at a National Academy of Social Insurance 2012 Summer Academy session entitled Demystifying Social Security on July 11, 2012.

Dr. Wilhelmina Leigh speaks at an event entitled The Super Committee and Social Security, held by the National Academy of Social Insurance on September 16, 2011.

Slides from her presentation can be found here.

In its deliberations to develop a plan to reduce the federal deficit by more than a trillion dollars over the next decade, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction considered a proposal to calculate cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) in all government programs using the Chained Consumer Price Index-Urban (C-CPI-U), rather than the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U).

Implementing this proposal would dramatically reduce Social Security benefits for recipients. Although reducing federal program benefits by changing the COLA computation is indeed one way to reduce the deficit, reducing benefits is not the only way to eliminate the 75-year projected shortfall (of 2.2 percent of taxable payroll) for the Social Security system.

The shortfall can be closed by holding benefit levels harmless and, instead, increasing revenue directed to the system. A recent report of the Commission to Modernize Social Security Plan for A New Future: The Impact of Social Security Reform on People of Color offers recommendations for doing just that.

Read more at GlobalPolicy.tv and the Joint Center Blog.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 -- The National Council of La Raza issued the following news release:

As the United States transitions to a "majority-minority" population over the next three decades, prominent health and income security groups say the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction and other members of Congress must take into account how changes to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will affect communities of color, a population that is growing and increasingly economically insecure.

Two new reports show the importance of programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to communities of color. Plan for a New Future: The Impact of Social Security Reform on Communities of Color, released by the Commission to Modernize Social Security, argues that changes to the program must consider the impact on workers and families of color who are more vulnerable to economic instability and far less likely to have generational wealth than White families. The importance of Medicaid to the Black and Latino communities, as well as the heavy burden of chronic disease borne by these groups, is documented in a detailed report, Medicaid: A Lifeline for Blacks and Latinos With Serious Health Care Needs, which was recently released by Families USA.

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"Social Security is the only source of income for two of every five African American retiree households age 65 and older," said Commission member Dr. Wilhelmina Leigh, Senior Research Associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "So any proposals to guarantee system solvency should also guarantee the adequacy of benefits going forward."

Read the full story at Insurance News.

African Americans are more likely than whites to expect that Social Security will be their major source of income during retirement. Th is was true in both 1998 (35 percent of African Americans versus 17 percent of whites) and 2009 (37 percent of African Americans versus 27 percent of whites). African Americans also are more likely than whites to support the Social Security system as currently structured and to believe that the system should continue to provide the same type and level of benefits. A range of views, however, is held by African Americans and whites on selected proposals for reforming the Social Security system to ensure its solvency.

These findings are from a survey of 850 African Americans and 850 members of the general U.S. population (including 721 white Americans) that was conducted for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies by Research America between May 21 and June 9, 2009. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies National Opinion Poll about Social Security, Retirement Savings and the Economic Downturn found many striking differences between African Americans and whites on these topics.

This publication is available for download by clicking the icon below.

As the United States transitions to a “majority-minority” population over the next three decades, Social Security must be modernized to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse and economically insecure workforce, according to a report released today by the Commission to Modernize Social Security, made up of national policy experts representing African American, Asian American, Latino and Native American communities.

Although Social Security does not contribute to the federal deficit, Social Security benefit cuts are at the center of discussions in Congress to reduce the federal debt. The report – Plan for a New Future: The Impact of Social Security Reform on People of Color – argues that changes to the program must consider the impact on workers and families of color who are more vulnerable to economic instability and far less likely to have generational wealth than white families. The report cites U.S. Census Bureau data showing that a majority of babies born in this country are now from minority racial groups. If this trend continues, the overall U.S. population is expected to become “majority-minority” by 2042.

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The Commission to Modernize Social Security was formed in March 2011 by the Insight Center for Community Economic Development and Global Policy Solutions to identify proposals to extend Social Security’s long-term solvency while modernizing the program to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse society. The Commission is comprised of individuals from the following organizations: Center for Economic and Policy Research, Demos, Economic Policy Institute, Global Policy Solutions, Harvard University Department of Government, Insight Center for Community Economic Development, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, International Association for Indigenous Aging, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Latinos for a Secure Retirement, National Asian Pacific Center on Aging, National Caucus and Center on Black Aged, Inc., National Council of La Raza, National Council of Negro Women, National Urban League Policy Institute, Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, The Aspen Institute, and University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

Read more at Yahoo! News, PR Web.

In a briefing held Friday by the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), Social Security advocates said cutting seniors’ benefits to pay down the nation’s deficit would be highly destructive for current Social Security recipients and future beneficiaries.

Recently, lawmakers have suggested reforming America’s Social Security plan out of concern that it will run out of money by 2036.

Wilhelmina Leigh, Senior Research Associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, pointed to the deficit reduction plan co-authored last year by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson.

Under the proposal, the full-benefit retirement age would be increased beyond 67, the cost-of-living adjustment would be lowered for current and future beneficiaries and the formula for calculating benefits would be heavily altered.

Leigh said the proposal “will close the shortfall by cutting benefits.”

Read more at The Talk Radio News Service.