UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, September 27,1994
9A
Youth see a Social Security crisis
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Young Americans find it easier to believe in UFOs than the likelihood Social Security will be around when they retire, said a group that surveyed the nation's "Generation X."
The survey, released yesterday, tells a "chilling tale of young people convinced that the social contract between the generations has been dissolved," said the sponsoring group. Third Millennium.
The name refers to the period following the year 2000, when people in the age group sometimes called Generation X will be moving into positions of authority.
According to the poll, just over one-fourth of people between the ages of 18 and 34 believe Social Security will still exist when they retire, compared with 46 percent who think there are UFOS.
Only nine percent of the young people think Social Security will have the money to pay their retirement benefits.
"Despite their faith in UFOs, young people know that the solution to the Social Security funding crisis — and the national debt crisis — will not fall from the sky," said Richard Thau, Third Millennium executive director.
Indeed, a new draft report by the Congressional Budget Office concludes that "no easy fixes to the funding problems of the Social Security system exist."
Right now, the Social Security trust funds take in more than they spend. This year alone, CBO estimates that Social Security will collect about $58 billion more than it will pay in benefits.
But during the retirement years of the baby boomers, the generation of people born between 1946 and 1964, annual benefits will exceed receipts, and the trust funds will be exhausted by 2029, unless changes are made.
The congressional budget experts, in their draft study, conclude that improving the investment returns of Social Security's trust funds or investing to improve overall economic growth will not solve the funding problem.
In its report. Third Millennium said Social Security is "hurting toward its next financial crisis." Serious, structural reform is desperately needed, it said, but the political will to make the difficult decisions has not existed.
"And as public confidence in the retirement system deteriorates, intergenerational conflict becomes an increasingly likely feature of the American public landscape." it said.
Third Millennium said that while Generation Xers had been labeled selfish and self-centered by the media, its survey demonstrated it was the elderly who cared most about themselves, even at the cost of future generations.
Its poll found that one-third of senior citizens think they are getting less than they deserve from Social Security, although their benefits have outstripped their contributions.
According to the poll, just over half of the youth surveyed supported paying benefits based on need and making benefits 100 percent taxable for wealthy recipients.
points. Five hundred Generation Xers and 500 senior citizens were surveyed.
Third Millennium, based in New York, was founded in July 1993 as an advocacy and education group to raise awareness about long-term problems facing America and offer solutions to those problems, Thau said.
Black, Asian and Hispanic men and women occupy only one percent of top corporate jobs.
Those are the discrepancies the Labor Department's Glass Ceiling Commission is attempting to address.
The commission held its fifth and final hearing yesterday with testimony from Lawrence Tisch, the chief executive of CBS Inc.; Connie Chung, co-anchor of the network's evening news; corporate and community leaders; educators and others.
NEW YORK — Women make up about half the work force, yet less than five percent hold positions in senior management of U.S. corporations.
Speaking before the commission, Tisch said CBS had worked hard to promote the concept within the network that a person should be judged on ability alone.
The justices said they will decide whether the small-business affirmative action program — a boon to companies owned by minorities and women — unlawfully discriminates against companies owned by white men.
Consequently, female officers and managers represent almost 40 percent of the work force and minority officers and managers comprise 19 percent.
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, jumping the gun on the start of its 1994-95 term next week, agreed yesterday to hear civil rights cases involving school desegregation and involving businesses owned by women and minorities an edge in getting federal contracts.
The case could lead to the court's most important ruling on affirmative action since 1990.
The school desegregation case from Kansas City asks whether courts can require improvements in
The term "glass ceiling" refers to unseen barriers to the advancement of women and minorities in the corporate world.
Supreme Court to start early
student achievement before some court-ordered programs can end.
Commission studies number of women in top jobs
The court also agree to hear arguments in six other cases.
Accepting the cases for review before the official beginning of the court's new term on Oct. 3 gives the lawyers an extra week to prepare for argument.
The court agreed to decide:
—In a California case, whether states may increase the time between parole hearings for all prison inmates, including those who were sentenced when state law required more frequent hearings.
—Whether companies can trademark the color of their products. The case involves a Chicago company that seeks to regain a trademark for the color of the pads it makes for dry-cleaning presses.
—In a Florida case, whether
lawyers can be barred from using the mail to solicit clients until 30 days after a personal injury or death occurs.
—When the government can appeal to federal courts in disputes over benefits awarded to disabled maritime workers.
The affirmative action case involves the federal Small Business Act, which requires government agencies to use their purchasing power to help small businesses. Those owned by historically disadvantaged people receive special help.
The Transportation Department's Central Federal Lands Highway Division gives prime contractors on federal projects a 1.5 percent bonus if at least 10 percent of their subcontracts go to "disadvantaged business enterprises."
Hot water still deep for Espy
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The independent counsel investigating Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy said yesterday that reimbursing the cost of free tickets, lodging and travel—as Espy has done—is not a defense for illegally receiving gifts.
Recently, Espy has made a series of reimbursements for gifts he received and for personal use of a government-leased car.
They have included $700 for four Super Bowl tickets, $6,200 for the vehicle, $450 for lodging at a West Virginia resort, $90 for two Chicago Bulls basketball tickets and $194 for one of his many trips to his home in Mississippi.
Espy's lawyer, former federal prosecutor Reid Weingarten, agreed that reimbursements would not absolve an individual of responsibility for a crime.
Plan limits immigrant aid
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A federal commission will propose that Congress change immigration laws to make families who bring relatives to the United States legally responsible for supporting them.
The plan follows an explosion in the number of immigrants receiving welfare benefits.
Authorized by Congress in 1990 to examine immigration policies and their impact on society and the environment, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform will issue its first report to lawmakers on Friday.
According to the commission's executive director, Susan Martin, the nine-member advisory panel headed by former Rep. Barbara Jordan debated for days with the complex and politically explosive issues surrounding welfare and immigrants.
In a series of unanimous decisions, the commission will recommend to Congress that illegal immigrants be barred from most public aid, aside from immunizations, emergency medical care, school lunches and child nutrition programs.
"We can't lift the safety net for legal, permanent residents," Martin said in
an interview. "But at the same time, families have to take more responsibility."
Most legal immigrants are the spouses, children, parents or siblings of U.S. citizens and long-term, permanent residents.
If immigrants cannot show they have financial resources or a job in the United States, their sponsors must be able to support them and are required to sign a non-binding affidavit.
The commission also will ask Congress to strengthen immigration laws to keep people out of the country when it is clear they will apply for welfare within the first five years of their arrival.
Congress should also make it easier to deport immigrants with long spells on welfare.
"We should not admit people likely to become a public charge," Martin said. "It should be the extraordinary event, not the routine one."
Records obtained by the Associated Press last year showed that thousands of immigrants apply for aid shortly after arriving in the United States, despite their relatives' promises to support them.
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