Saturday, August 14, 2010

"Don't Steal My Social Security."

My father's middle name was Franklin. He was named after Franklin Roosevelt. And today, we celebrate the anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt's greatest accomplishment - Social Security.

We call it Social Security. In other countries, the call it a public pension. But Roosevelt chose the term Social Security because the word "security" went right to the heart of what he was trying to accomplish for Middle Class America. It was one of Roosevelt's famous Four Freedoms: "Freedom From Want."

Without Social Security, seniors would be forced to work into their seventies, eighties and nineties. When they would become too sick or frail to work, they would have to beg. And then they would die.

That's the way it was in America when my father was growing up. Before Franklin Roosevelt's Social Security. No wonder my grandparents named him Franklin.

Today marks the 75th anniversary of Social Security. Without it, many of our seniors would be so poor that they'd have to eat cat food just to survive.

That's why many are calling the Deficit Commission, run by extremist right-winger Alan Simpson, the "Catfood Commission." It's the culmination of decades of plotting by right-wingers to destroy Social Security.

As you read this email, the Catfood Commission is plotting behind closed doors to find a way to force Social Security cuts on the American people. In a few months, when they come out with their cruel "recommendations," you're going to hear all over the media that we have to destroy Social Security in order to save it.

Where have I heard that before?

We've got to stop them. If enough of us speak out against Social Security cuts now, then people like me, fighting to protect Social Security, can show the media where We, The People stand on this.

That's why I've started a petition telling Congress and the President, "Don't Steal My Social Security." It tells every Federal official with a say on this that if they vote to cut Social Security, then they're going to have to find another line of work. You know that extension in unemployment benefits that we just passed? That will be for them.

Sign the petition now, and pass it along to your friends.

Together, we can send a message that if you try to steal my Social Security, then your security is gone, forever.

Truth,

Alan Grayson

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