Burgess Owens: “Social Security should be a nonnegotiable part of a democratic society in America. I must appeal and beg the White House…”

“Social Security should be a nonnegotiable part of a democratic society in America. I must appeal and beg the White House and the Republican majority in the House and the Senate to end the torture of millions of Americans. Right now they are going through torture. Torture is a correct word. A cruel psychological torture is being executed every day when we launch these overt attacks, assaults on Social Security. People are fearful. I feel the pain and fear of the millions who are now trembling under this barrage of Republican propaganda which attacks Social Security, uses trick words and booby trap concepts that frighten people a great deal. It is not reform. It is the destruction of Social Security as we know it which is being attempted. Social Security must be made as permanent as the United States Constitution. Social Security represents a high expression of compassion. It is a massive and systematic application of collective compassion. It works. It is not a perfectly administrated program. Nothing is perfect. But it has made possible a helping hand in a systematic way to more people than any other program ever conceived by any government.”