The thousands of people who have come out on the streets of Baiona against the reform of Emmanuel Macron’s retas, if you listen to the almost equal arguments used by the right in Florida to predict the immediate “bankruptcy” of the U.S. Social Security, you would think that all of this is a global plan, which the private fund lobby had enraged in a brilliant needle. But who are the citizens to start thinking badly…

For the moment, the only reality is that everyone makes soups on this issue from their bread. In Paris, Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt argued a “balance” to justify a scissor to the retirement system, which aims to delay the retirement age from 62 to 64 and increase the contribution years. Le Parisien's diary picked up the words from the buttons: "It's unnegotiable. Otherwise, we would have no responsibility for future generations.”

In Madrid, the progressive increase in the contribution bases is the latest proposal by the Social Security Minister of the Government of Spain, José Luis Escriva, for pensions, “to prepare for the generational imbalance in the system”. Balance or imbalance is the same idea in this circus: public pension systems are heading to the river for the ageing of society, and to avoid this, retirees will have to have less money in the booklet at the beginning of the month.

For this simple argument, pensioners’ movements and trade unions have alternatives, such as the payment of pensions through budgets, such as the works of the TAV or the Leopard tanks are paid. But today, in most countries, pensioners' pensions are paid by workers on duty, and many have swallowed the toad of what is no longer sustainable, not only in us, but also on the other side of the Atlantic.

If in the US you have been having this intense debate for some time, we should follow your discussions closely. In the midterm elections of 2022, known as midterms, congressmen of the Republican Party introduced the stinger, saying that the retirement age should be delayed from 67 to 70 years – yes, you have read it well – in their election programme. The Democratic Party quickly tackled the hook by turning the hashtag #HandsOffMySocialSecurity ("Ken's hands from my Social Security"). 75 per cent of Republican representatives expressed their willingness to privatize Social Security and eliminate Medicare health insurance for the most vulnerable.

The US House of Representatives is subject to Republican forces. However, Kevin Maccarthy, who was appointed head of the chamber for lack of protection from the fundamentalists, at his first meeting with Joe Biden in the White House, did not make any reference to the reduction in pensions, although the only solution to prevent the overhang of the US debt ceiling. Also a small privatizer like Donald Trump has called for Social Security not to be touched. It is, of course, a sensitive issue that directly affects citizenship, and the right is closing the net very carefully to capture the trout in his speech.

Stressing with important things

“You’re stressed by the wrong things. Florida is more aware of the ‘repair’ of Social Security.” With this striking title, journalist Frank Cerabino has published the column in Florida’s The Palm Beach Post, which has reached us through the Left Portal Alternet.org. Cerobino says that citizens are involved in other debates, no less important for the rights of transas and blacks, but that they are faced with a much more serious problem: the constant effort of the right to bring the intestines to Social Security.

And the toothpaste on the right is called Rick Scott in Florida. He represents this state in the United States Senate, which won four million votes, and has repeatedly defended the suspension of the Social Security Program for its “failure”. Scott has in his hands a 12-point plan Rescue America (“Rescue America”) for the upcoming Senate elections, a beautiful picture of his ideology: kissing children every day the flag at school, giving more money to the police, ending Mexico’s border barrier and naming Donald Trump, the distinction between men and women… “It warns you: this plan is not weak greetings to the people.”

According to Cerabino, the senator wants to convince the citizen that the social security trust fund will “evaporate” from 2034. But, according to the data provided by the federal administration, this is not the case: although by 2034 it is expected that the fund will start to run out, only with workers' contributions will 78% of pensions be paid. Conversely, if the main measure called for by House Republicans – delaying the retirement age from 67 to 70 years – were to be implemented, “citizens would pay 23% less for retirement”, the journalist said.

For this purpose it has data provided by the prestigious blogger Matt Bruenig and creator of the think tank izquierdo People's Policy Project. Bruenig says on his organization’s website that raising the retirement age and suspending social security are two blurred ideas that “describe the same policy”. The blogger believes that the law can be modified if Social Security runs out of money, rather than automatically cutting pensioners, so that the wealthiest automatically raise taxes, “it would be nice,” he says.

It is clear from Bruenig that “you want to raise the contributions to Social Security and deliver it to Wall Street”, that is, that pension fund lobbies want to privatise.

Let's go back to what Cerabino says in his column. According to some studies, one third of Americans choose to receive Social Security as soon as they reach 62, although this penalizes them with a lower pension. Above all, they are of a lower level of education and of a rural nature: they have no choice but to invest in private pension schemes. According to the journalist, in Florida the situation is bloody: “Without Social Security, 37.8% of the elderly would live below poverty.” Given that there are currently 1.5 million poor florides over 65, around 6% of the population, there would be six times more poor people. And they won't be rescued.