This entry by AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Lee A. Saunders is cross-posted from Huffington Post and Firedoglake.

Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission did something it has never done before. It charged the state of New Jersey with fraudulently misleading investors about the health of the state’s pension plan. From 2001 to 2007, the SEC charged, the state gave out false information about the state’s retirement funds. They cooked the books. Now investors, taxpayers and retirees are left to clean up the mess.

Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said: “The State of New Jersey didn’t give its municipal investors a fair shake, withholding and misrepresenting pertinent information about its financial situation.

It is not just investors who are not getting a fair shake. Taxpayers and retirees are being abused as well. While the state failed to adequately invest in their retirement funds and misled investors, New Jersey’s public employees faithfully made their payments into the funds. Public employees in the Garden State contribute 5.5 percent of their compensation to their retirement fund, and earn an average annual benefit of $20,349.

Now the state’s policy of underfunding the retirement security of state employees has been exposed. As The Wall Street Journal noted this week: “The problems go back nearly 15 years, to when the then-relatively healthy state decided to borrow $2.8 billion and stick it in its pension funds in lieu of making contributions from tax revenues.”

The state compounded the problem by using accounting gimmicks, giving investors the false impression that everything was fine. And governors from both parties failed to make required payments into the funds. Earlier this year, for example, Governor Chris Christie failed to make the state’s required $3.1 billion payment.

No one should be surprised that New Jersey’s fraud against investors, retirees and taxpayers began with tax giveaways for the rich. Lost revenue from income tax cuts enacted from 1994 through 1996 – under GOP Governor Christine Todd Whitman – totaled $14 billion, and sales tax cuts totaled $10 billion. That’s more than enough to fill the hole in the state’s pension funds.

We have every right to be angry with irresponsible public officials in New Jersey. If anything, they got off the hook easy, with the SEC failing to name names or fine the officials who conducted the fraud. Sadly, other states have been just as irresponsible. Many have lost revenue by passing unwise tax cuts, then underfunded their pension plans and used accounting gimmicks to hide their inadequate investments. Investors, taxpayers and retirees all benefit when there is accountability and transparency in pension funds.

When Social Security was signed into law on August 14, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said:

“The civilization of the past hundred years, with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insecure. Young people have come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age. The man with a job has wondered how long the job would last. It is, in short, a law that will take care of human needs and at the same time provide the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness.”

His remarks ring true today.

This year, over 53 million Americans will receive a benefit they earned and count on from Social Security. For an economy that has failed many, Social Security provides certainty in an uncertain time.

As we reflect on the successes of Social Security, it is necessary to acknowledge the challenges that lie ahead. The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is currently holding closed-door meetings in Washington. Many of the commissioners favor cutting Social Security benefits, including raising the retirement age. This is despite the fact Social Security is paid for by payroll deductions and does not contribute a penny to the federal deficit.

AFSCME has joined with a coalition of 60 groups dedicated to fighting cuts to Social Security. The Strengthen Social Security campaign produced this video outlining the attacks on Social Security and what we’re up against:

Social Security remains one of the most effective and popular government programs of all time. A new poll released this week shows the public is overwhelmingly opposed to any attempts to cut Social Security benefits. Congress needs to listen to the American people and reject these misguided efforts.

Let your representatives know where you stand — tell them to strengthen Social Security… don’t cut it.

AFSCME Retirees laid the foundations for our union, and Next Wavers — members age 35 and younger — are building upon that legacy. Tuesday, representatives of both groups met on stage to highlight the commitment of AFSCME activists across the board.

Retirees Phyllis Zamarripa (CO Chapter 76) and Howard Van Kleef (OH Chapter 1184), along with Next Wave activists Tamika Nared, Local 1439 (PA Council 13), and Elvyss Arguetta, Local 88 (OR Council 75) starred in a video showing their recent cross-country trip visiting local affiliates. Their goal: to experience AFSCME through its history, activism, lobbying and organizing efforts.

The camaraderie they displayed showed how generations of AFSCME leaders can learn from each other to improve the lives of working people.

The Retirees Council held its annual meeting on Saturday and Sunday, marking 30 years of progress. On Sunday, delegates reelected Chair Jerry LaPoint (Wisconsin Chapter 7), Vice-Chair Gary Tavormina (New York Chapter 82), and Secretary Loneste Blackwell (Ohio Chapter 1184).

Throughout this week, Medicare beneficiaries across the country should be receiving copies of a brochure “Medicare and the New Health Law – What it Means for You” in their mailboxes. The mailing from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services outlines key provisions of the Affordable Care Act for people with Medicare as well as members of their families. The mailing is being sent in both English and Spanish.

Because Medicare is a trusted resource for beneficiaries and their family members, the mailing encourages them to log on to http://www.medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE to get their questions about Medicare or the Affordable Care Act answered and reminds them to be on the alert for possible scams.

The first benefit that many people with Medicare will receive as a result of the passage of the new law is a one-time check for $250 if they enter the Part D donut hole and are not eligible for Medicare Extra Help. Beginning next year, the Affordable Care Act ensures that Medicare beneficiaries will get free preventive care services like colorectal cancer screening and mammograms, in addition to a free annual wellness visit. The law also includes new tools to help fight fraud by helping Medicare crack down on criminals who are seeking to scam seniors and steal taxpayer dollars.

The brochures can also be downloaded from the Medicare website: English version and Spanish version.

Now that health care reform has passed in the House, it faces a tough challenge in the Senate as opponents of reform try anything to stop it, including scaring seniors with myths and misinformation.

AFSCME Retirees – the union’s organization of nearly a quarter million retired members – has been working hard to dispel these false claims about “death panels,” rationed care, and cuts in Medicare benefits.

The truth is there are no benefit cuts and no rationing of care in these bills, and there certainly are no “death panels” that would deny care to seniors. In fact, reform will strengthen Medicare’s solvency and add new benefits that seniors want and need. These include:

• phasing out Medicare’s big gap in drug coverage (the infamous “doughnut hole”)
• fixing the physician fee schedule, so doctors will always accept Medicare patients
• offering free Medicare preventive services – such as cancer screenings
• and providing more choices in long term care.

AFSCME is trying to promote this message to retiree members as well as to the parents and grandparents of AFSCME’s working members. The Retirees section of AFSCME.org includes health care fact sheets and a new video called “Phony Horror Stories about Health Care Reform.”

The video, which stars AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee and Barbara Easterling, Pres. of the Alliance for Retired Americans, separates fact from fiction for senior citizens. It also features video remarks from Lynda Johnson Robb, whose father – LBJ – established Medicare as the first step toward affordable health care coverage for all. Watch it here:

In addition, Seniors to Seniors, a coalition that includes AFSCME Retirees, AARP, the Alliance for Retired Americans, and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, is fighting to dispel myths about reform. The coalition site at www.seniorstoseniors.org has informative videos that show fellow seniors telling their personal health care stories and a health care reform Q & A.

This post on the Alliance for Retired Americans annual legislative conference being held this week in Washington, D.C., comes from James Parks at the AFL-CIO Now blog:

This is the year for passing real health care reform and to begin rebuilding the nation’s middle class by passing laws that give workers a free choice to join a union. And union retirees, one of the most active political groups in the country, will play a big role in bringing about change, top government leaders said.

Speaking in the opening session of the Alliance for Retired Americans annual legislative conference on Monday were U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee.

Both Sebelius and McEntee told the delegates that any health care reform must include an option for a public plan and must not tax the health benefits that workers and retirees receive through their employers.

Pointing out that President Obama received a higher percentage of votes from union retirees than any other group of voters, McEntee, who heads the AFL-CIO Political Committee, said health care reform is just one of the ways that “we’re taking back our nation for working families and retirees.”

“They [Republicans] are trying to take away our victories. George Bush stole part of the American Dream. He decimated the middle class, created the biggest gap in wealth in decades and left us with two wars.”

McEntee urged the seniors who will lobby lawmakers Wednesday to send a message to Capitol Hill.

“This is our best chance [to take back America]. We have to take it. We know what we’re up against. Go to Capitol Hill and tell them we’re kicking ass and taking names.”

Read more at the AFL-CIO Now Blog.