FIRST REGULAR SESSION

House Concurrent Resolution No. 8

93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

0702L.01I

            Whereas, Social Security is a federal program that does not recognize the retirement needs of many Missourians; and

            Whereas, Social Security tax revenues alone will not be sufficient to pay current benefits as early as the year 2015 and moneys in the Social Security Trust Fund may be completely exhausted by the year 2037; and

            Whereas, since the investment return on Social Security contributions made by workers today is significantly below that available from other sources, workers deserve the opportunity to invest more productively for their own retirements. More retirement investment opportunities may dramatically increase workers' savings rate and retain more young adults who otherwise would leave the state for jobs elsewhere; and

            Whereas, the unfunded liability of the Social Security system exceeds nine trillion dollars according to the Chairman of the Federal Reserve System; and

            Whereas, while many workers are already facing very low or even negative rates of return on their lifetimes of Social Security contributions, the aging of the United States population means that fewer and fewer active workers will be supporting more and more retirees under today's pay-as-you-go financing for Social Security; and

            Whereas, the ratio of retirees to workers has decreased from 42-to-1 in 1935 when the program first started, to less than 3-to-1 today and soon will fall to less than 2-to-1; and

            Whereas, raising payroll or income taxes to compensate for this demographic shrinkage will mean that today's workers receive an even lower return on their federal retirement contributions than they do now and broadly cutting Social Security benefits also would decrease rates of return; and

            Whereas, states and localities that permit their own employees to invest a portion of their taxes for retirement have shown that workers can do better for themselves with such accounts than under Social Security; and

            Whereas, an increasing number of countries, including Australia, Chile, Mexico, Poland, Hungary, Khazakstan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, now permit their citizens to allocate their taxes to such personal retirement accounts; and

            Whereas, the Social Security Trustees have consistently and repeatedly stated in their annual reports that the Social Security system will not be able to deliver on its long-term promises under its current financing scheme; and

            Whereas, the public, especially younger people, are therefore rightfully suspicious of Social Security's ability to deliver on its long-term promises to them; and

            Whereas, bipartisan Social Security reform proposals now before the United States Congress would address these problems by creating a system of personal accounts with a portion of Social Security taxes; and

            Whereas, the Social Security Administration's own actuaries have judged these bipartisan proposals to be fiscally sound for the next seventy-five years; and

            Whereas, these proposals would reduce or eliminate the pressure for higher taxes or broadly reduced benefits while reducing Social Security's unfunded liability, but the proposals would not affect people in or near retirement or those eligible for or drawing Social Security disability benefits; and

            Whereas, the United States Congress has not been able to pass meaningful Social Security reform; and

            Whereas, the State of Missouri has shown that it invests in a fiscally responsible manner and is capable of administering pension programs; and

            Whereas, the citizens of the State of Missouri deserve better than what Social Security can deliver:

            Now, therefore, be it resolved that the members of the House of Representatives of the Ninety-third General Assembly, First Regular Session, the Senate concurring therein, hereby urge the United States Congress to enact legislation amending the Social Security Act and other federal statutes to permit the citizens of the State of Missouri to voluntarily opt-out of the federal Social Security system and invest their Social Security taxes in personal retirement accounts that they themselves would own and control, with the retirement accounts and investments to be approved by the State Treasurer's Office and the program to be modeled in a manner similar in concept to the Missouri Saving for Tuition 529 program; and

            Be it further resolved that the Chief Clerk of the Missouri House of Representatives be instructed to prepare properly inscribed copies of this resolution for the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and each member of the Missouri Congressional Delegation.