(Washington, D.C.)  At a Capitol Hill news conference today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) joined several public policy organizations to promote “The Billion Byte March,” an online grassroots campaign to promote Social Security reform.

“The American public is well ahead of Washington politicos on the issue of Social Security reform,” remarked CAGW Vice President Leslie K. Paige.  “This unprecedented cyber-campaign is the ultimate wake up call to Congress.  From now on, they ignore Social Security reform at their own risk.”

Unlike conventional demonstrations, the Billion Byte March will consist of hundreds of thousands of “marchers” who will make their voices heard simply by visiting the march’s website at www.march.org  Participants are asked to write personal, reform-minded messages to President Clinton and members of Congress.  Each message will be electronically banked, sorted by congressional district, and released with all the others on a single day in January 1999.

Every march e-mail message will advocate adding individual accounts to Social Security, thereby bolstering future benefits and building meaningful savings.  Marchers will also support maintaining all social safety net features for survivors, the disabled and low-income retirees.

“Real Social Security reform is a necessity if we are to continue on the path to a truly balanced budget,” Paige stated.  “The federal budget is only balanced on paper because the President and Congress are applying a temporary surplus in Social Security to the overall budget.  When the baby boom generation begins to retire, not only will Social Security go into the red, but it will drag the whole budget with it.”

Those interested in joining the demonstration can access the Billion Byte March website via CAGW’s homepage, located at www.cagw.org.  The site also contains other information on CAGW’s efforts to fight waste in government.

CAGW is a 600,000 member, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.

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