Root Beer Floats – 3 All the Way & Net Pay – Carol Anne Costa

Root Beer Floats – 3 All the Way & Net Pay – Carol Anne Costa

Like so many of us, I was raised in a family where landing your first job was cause for celebration. In my case, I was a carhop at A&W Root Beer in Smithfield. Post roller skates, of course! You remember - counting change was a thing! So, if you give me that dreaded penny, my head doesn’t explode. And strapped to our side was the now antique change dispenser. I loved that thing, and that job, as it taught me so much. 

 

Before my first shift, I vividly remember being schooled and quizzed at the dining room table by my parents with - ones, fives, tens, and a fistful of coins. A skill set and a core memory I carry to this day. As an aside, my mother was much more patient than my dad. The good cop - bad cop approach definitely worked. 

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Ahh, remember your first real job? We've all had them, right? The first one, the hard one, the rewarding one, the boring one, and guess what, they all taught us lessons about work, people, courtesy, communication, and commitment. 

 

And who could forget that very first paycheck where the amount on your check was woefully lower than the figure in your head. And likely your parents, grandparents, or a twenty-something in your life taught you that very day about taxes, social security, and something called net pay. You learned there was a commitment that the government was taking money to set aside to pay for common services, and some also set aside for your retirement, a commitment that every 16-year-old could not fathom until maybe your late 30s. 

 

But here we are - rethinking that promise in one fell swoop, void of any authentic consideration by the majority party in DC, whose seemingly sole purpose is to undo promises designed by FDR to undergird the middle class, and to that, I cannot be a mere spectator. 

 

As the Executive Director of the Senior Agenda Coalition (SACRI), I know just how important the commitment and promise of Social Security remain for every person who has toiled, saved, sweated, laughed, and cried at a job to earn a paycheck to achieve the dream of security and wealth in this country. 

 

And SACRI and I speak for every single one of them. Threats to this program we cannot abide, and we will fight them with vigor and speak out to protect it from the overreach and the reckless hands of an administration out of touch with its aging, disabled, and working class. 

 

At SACRI our mission is to advocate, organize, educate, and support legislation to bring about good law and policy to protect the largest growing segment of our society - people over the age of 60. The people who have relied on that very commitment to pay for benefits to retire and age successfully in the greatest country on Earth. And to tamper with or attempt to break and abandon that commitment is not only a travesty, but also a colossal moral failure. 

 

So, I ask that you follow us and join to help SACRI give voice to the issue and voice to those who can no longer talk, or walk or march, by loudly speaking the truth to those who are hellbent on steering us in this ominous direction. Always remember in America, our voice is our power; our words matter, and SACRI will be here in partnership to continue to speak truth to power. 

 

HANDS OFF our Social Security! 

 

Carol Anne Costa, Senior Agenda Coalition of RI, Executive Director. She has enjoyed a lengthy career in public service, including working in the Raimondo Administration and, most recently, the RI Office of Attorney General. Carol earned a Bachelor of Arts from Rhode Island College, holds certifications in public housing and education, and is an inductee of the RI Tennis Coaches Hall of Fame and recipient of the Governor John Notte Award for public access programming.