NARFE Tennessee Federation Message Board

I was invited and attended a meeting with NARFE at the offices of Congressman Jim Cooper in Nashville about a month or so ago.
In my opinion I found it very shocking that nobody would ask him any serious questions. I asked him about Social Security GPO offsets and I was branded as a "radical" by the congressman after I brought up the idea that we would be better off with privatizied Social Security where they could not take our money away in the form of offsets. It was not till after the meeting when someone told me that that was a good thing and that John Adams and George Washington were radicals too.
He went on to say that "all of you will get your full benefits" when tal;king about he future of Sociall Security.
I was amazed that I was the only person in that room that challanged him on that, and I did not get an answer to the question or the statement that almost nobody in the room would get their full benefits due to the GPO.
THe fact that I loose 100% of my social security, and that most of you loose about 50% was allowed to be swept under the rug by Cooper. Nobody questioned it. Nobody in that room asked him why he did not support the house resolution the eliminate the GPO.
I would just like to remind everyone that the congressman works for us. We need not to be afraid to ruffle his feathers. Every member at the table had a right to ask whatever pointed question they wanted, but sadly nobody wanted to do that.

It is OK. Like I told him I am very grateful for my pension that I do get, but at the same time I do not like the fact that I loose 1oo% of my social security in offsets he supports.[code][/code]

I am surprised to hear that Congressman Cooper would support the privatization of Social Security. He should at least be familiar with H.R. 82 which is the House Bill to eliminate the Social Security GPO/WEP offsets.
Don't give up, keep asking questions and demand answers from all our elected officials.

rwcollins wrote:I am surprised to hear that Congressman Cooper would support the privatization of Social Security. He should at least be familiar with H.R. 82 which is the House Bill to eliminate the Social Security GPO/WEP offsets.
Don't give up, keep asking questions and demand answers from all our elected officials.

Congressman Cooper did not support privitization. That is why he called me a readical. It was like a child that did not get his way so he called me a name and moved on to easier questions.

As for the House Resolution that would eliminate the GPO he is aware of it and does not support it. I am not sure that is all bad though.
The resolution has several hundred cosponsors, Bart Gordon of TN being one of them. There is not an Iceberg's chance in the Caribbean of him voting for it. It looks good for him to support it, but he knows that it will never make it out of committee for a vote so he will never have to back his empty support with a vote.

One of the main reasons for it not having a chance to make it is because of the Demands of the NEA. This is not my opinion. I ws told by Charles Wrangle who is the chair of the house ways and means committee that if it were not for the demands of the NEA that it would have a very good chance of passing. I for one wish NARFE would tell the NEA that we could not support them and push for passage as NARFE and others support it. As long as we are in bed with the NEA we will not see the GPO eliminated due to the costs.