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Seniors speak out at event for SS
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Bill Luoma of Warren makes a point at Tuesday’s rally at SCOPE Senior Center in Warren to celebrate the 76th anniversary of Social Security. Luoma, president of Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR), blames the country’s poor economy and SS financial woes on the loss of jobs overseas.
WARREN
Frank Cicero, who receives a pension as a retiree of General Motors Packard Electric, said Social Security represents one-half of his income.
Cicero was one of about 100 mostly seniors who attended a rally Tuesday at the SCOPE Senior Center in Warren to celebrate the 76th anniversary of Social Security and protest proposed cuts in traditional Social Security or Social Security disability benefits.
“It’s very important to me, but I know a lot of people who come to SCOPE who have just their SS checks to live on,” said Cicero, of Cortland, illustrating the need for the federal program.
“We work with people every day who live on a $400 or $500 monthly SS check,” said Janet Schweitzer, SCOPE executive director.
U.S. Rep. Timothy Ryan of Niles, D-17th, speaking on the heels of a report Monday that says SS disability will be bankrupt by 2017, sees both SS programs as one package that must be protected when the political logjam in Washington, D.C., is broken and work to reform SS begins.
“There are very influential people and persons in the very highest positions in government who want to privatize SS and Medicare and put them in the market- place and roll the dice. No thank you,” Ryan said to the crowd Tuesday.
Some in attendance said the poor economy and the moving of jobs overseas are at the heart of the problem with SS and other programs.
“I think we’re side- stepping the main issue,” said Bill Luoma, president of Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees and vice president of the Ohio Alliance of Retired Americans.
“Protecting SS is very important, but the blame for the shortage of money and jobs falls to the U.S. government for allowing major corporations to take jobs overseas. We need to put tariffs on goods from those corporations coming back into the country so high no American will buy them,” he said.
“How in the hell do they expect Americans to afford them without good-paying jobs?” Luoma asked.
Social Security contributes not only to individuals but to the local economy, said Florence Chambers, claims representative in the Warren SS office.
The are some 50,000 SS recipients in Trumbull County who spend their checks and contribute to the local economy, she said.