Retirees Matter: Prescription Drugs, Social Security: Look Closely at Who's Talking

How often do you feel like saying, "Look who's talking" when you hear people being hypocritical? When it comes to last year's prescription drug bill and the current push to privatize Social Security, it's never been more important for working Americans and retirees to take a good hard look at who's talking and understand what their agenda is.

What do prescription drugs and Social Security privatization reform have in common? They represent the shift of billions of dollars from working and retired Americans to the already-bursting-at-the-seams pockets of corporate America. Both programs are ways to make mega-millionaires and billionaires out of the merely rich, while the rest of us struggle.

Of course you'll never hear anything like that from the White House or its backers. Their spin, dutifully reported and rarely challenged in meaningful ways by the mainstream media, would have you believe that the changes they seek are in our best interests. Nothing could be further from the truth.

But their slick campaigns too often work. Their hired guns tell half-truths - at best - and get away with it. They're still claiming that seniors will save money under the convoluted prescription drug plan. But the savings are minimal to non-existent. The real winners, as always, are the corporations. And they stand to make a bundle. They claim their profits fund research, and to an extent that's true. But they also make company executives and board members filthy rich while millions of seniors still have to choose between filling a prescription and buying groceries.

What possible reason could this administration have for trying to bar American seniors from buying much lower cost drugs from Canada? How on earth can they explain why a bill that is supposed to help seniors specifically bans Medicare from negotiating drug prices in order to make them affordable? The one and only answer is greed. Is there even one reasonable, compassionate person in America who believes otherwise?

Now let's take a quick look at Social Security privatization. How will it affect current and future retirees? Expect to be saturated with misinformation put forth by people who have a substantial interest in seeing trillions of dollars shifted from the Social Security trust fund to the stock market. Again, they're going to tell you it's for your own good.

Listen to who's doing the talking and try to determine whether they have a vested interest in getting you to give up your guaranteed benefits for a roller coaster ride on Wall Street. Are these so-called experts working or speaking for the corporations that will reap millions, maybe billions, in fees from your risk? Are they politicians or lobbyists who count on funds and contracts from Wall Street firms? If so, they're only interested in their agenda, not your welfare, no matter what they say.

As a 73-year-old retiree leader on Social Security and lifetime union leader, where do you think my interests lie? No one's paying me. I'm on your side - our side. And my position, after studying the facts and talking with reliable sources, is that even partial privatization would be a disaster for present and future retirees.

As you read and listen and begin to make up your minds, all I ask is this: Look who's talking.