S-4219               _______________________________________________

                                           SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 144

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1986 Regular Session

By Senator Moore

Read first time 1/24/86 and referred to Committee on Financial Institutions.

TO THE HONORABLE RONALD REAGAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

          We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

          WHEREAS, Senior citizens have already made enormous contributions to the greatness of our nation, investing their time, energy, know-how, inspiration, and all their financial resources in the American dream; and

          WHEREAS, Senior citizens have the right to expect that the later year rewards of an active, productive, and generous life shall not be poverty, despair, and neglect; and

          WHEREAS, The measure of a nation's character is the way in which the elderly, the infirm, and the dependent are treated; and

          WHEREAS, Our commitment to social security is among the most solemn and fundamental of all America's commitments to her citizens; and

          WHEREAS, Old age, survivors, disability insurance and supplemental security income programs are too important to be left to the political whims of changing administrations; and

          WHEREAS, A bill is pending in Congress which would take two major steps toward insuring our continued commitment to social security by:  (1) Creating, beginning in fiscal year 1987, an independent Social Security Administration to govern the programs through regulation and provide analysis, information and recommendations to the Congress and the President on proposed changes in social security programs; and (2) removing the social security trust funds from the federal budget to guard against budgetary gimmicks which could jeopardize payments to those in need; and

          WHEREAS, Removing the social security trusts funds from the budget and would again make them independent as they were prior to 1969; and

          WHEREAS, In the current debate over the federal budget, we risk making senior citizens the victims of hard-pressed efforts to cut spending by allowing the trust funds to be prime targets for cuts; and

          WHEREAS, Unless the trust funds are separated from the unified budget and dealt with on their own merits, the perception will always remain that benefit reductions or tax increases are being made not to improve the solvency of the trust funds but to make the overall budget picture brighter; and

          WHEREAS, The federal government serves as the trustee to the social security trust funds but does not legally own them; and

          WHEREAS, Social security trust funds, once established, have their own continuing sources of revenue and do not rely on annual congressional appropriations;

          NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the United State Congress act immediately to create an independent Social Security Administration and remove the social security trust funds from partisan review; and

          BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.