“Own Your Future” Tour Splashes Down in Sunshine State

They cheered Social Security reform in South Florida as the CSE “Own Your Future” Tour wrapped up in Ft. Lauderdale last week. The tour was a huge success with over 100 people attending each of the events in Palm Beach and Broward County. Both events were part of CSE’s nationwide effort to educate voters on the Social Security crisis, and the consensus solution: Personal Retirement Accounts (PRAs) that workers can own and control.

Clearly, the movement in support of PRAs is gaining momentum. As South Florida CSE Director, I was extremely pleased with the turnout and the diversity of the audience. The meetings drew large crowds made up of old, young, middle aged, white, African-American and Hispanic. This great turnout is another demonstration that Social Security reform is an important subject to a broad spectrum of American citizens.

It addition to the grassroots interest, several policymakers and candidates from the local, state and federal level were in attendance to learn more about Social Security reform. After hearing Max give his presentation, two U.S. Congressional candidates, Dr. Marion Thorpe (D23) and Margaret Hostetter (D21), signed the CSE Freedom Candidate Survey, pledging their support for Social Security reform and Personal Retirement Accounts.

South Florida CSE was privileged to have Washington DC CSE policy analyst Max Pappas on hand to share his expertise on the Social Security system. The audience was impressed by the depth of knowledge that Max was able to convey; at both meetings the audience seemed very interested and enthusiastic about the subject. After Max gave his presentation, he was overwhelmed with questions. We eventually had to end the meeting, but people stayed afterwards to continue to ask questions. Several audience members told us after hearing Max explain how private accounts would work and how we could still preserve benefits for today’s seniors, that they would call their Representative in support of private accounts

Max Pappas told me after the event, “South Florida CSE did a great job turning out folks and organizing these events. What’s more, the response from the audience was very encouraging. Both John and I repeatedly stressed the importance of calling your representatives— especially Rep. Clay Shaw, Chairman of the critical Social Security Subcommittee— and saying you want BIG personal retirement accounts. Many people wrote down the 1-888 number and took Congressional directories so they could call this week.”

On behalf of myself and the members of South Florida CSE, we want express our gratitude for the great job Max Pappas did for us, and we hope he enjoyed the comparatively warm weather in South Florida! There are photos from the events, below. Great work everybody!