Forty-five years ago this week: “As time goes on,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Wirth, of the 2nd Congressional District, “we are finding that the safety net, which was proposed earlier this year, has some very large holes in it,” referring to a recently debated Social Security policy change.

Wirth had joined with the majority of Congress to vote for a measure that would restore the Social Security minimum monthly benefit of $122 to individuals who were retired and already receiving it. Wirth told The Colorado Statesman that it made no sense to eliminate it for the truly needy seniors in the country.

“People have worked hard for this benefit, many of them are widows in their 80s or 90s,” Wirth said. “They’ve been receiving it for a long time, and elimination of the minimum benefit will simply force many of these people onto the welfare rolls.”

In 1981, the minimum benefit was distributed to three million Americans, of which 85-90% were women. But Wirth disagreed with Rep. Pat Schroeder, CD-1 and Sen. Bill Armstrong who had both told meetings of constituents that Social Security faced bankruptcy if changes weren’t implemented soon.

“It’s dangerous for politicians to demagogue on the very important Social Security system,” Wirth said. “We simply need a careful, balanced and fair approach to the problems of the system.”

Wirth recommended a three-pronged approach that he said would be fair and equitable to all participants in the system, so that no one group bore more than their fair share of the problem.

“I favor an alternative approach,” Wirth said. “The first step would be to gradually increase the retirement age from 65 to 68, and then encourage people, through incentives, to work longer, and finally change the base on which adjustments for inflation are made to an index which better reflects the rate of inflation and the needs of seniors. These steps will generate the necessary revenue to make the system solvent over the long term, while asking all participants to share equally in this effort.”

Wirth said that while there wasn’t a consensus on what exactly should be done to the system, he wanted to stress that Social Security would not go broke.

“The sky is not falling in. Fair and equitable short- and long-term solutions are available,” Wirth said.

Twenty-five years ago: U.S. Rep Tom Tancredo, R-CD6 and former Democratic governor Dick Lamm held a press conference to point out what they saw as the real culprit of the explosive growth in Colorado: immigration.

“This issue is fraught with controversy and a great deal of emotion is built into immigration and immigration reform,” Tancredo said. “But we should concentrate on one aspect of immigration: the numbers.”

Tancredo said that immigration from 1980-2000 had “an impact economically, culturally and politically” on the state. While he argued that the growth debate in Colorado couldn’t be addressed at the national level, he was introducing “a massive immigration reform bill” in Congress, HR-2112, which would lower immigration numbers from 1 million a year to 300,000 per year over a five-year period.

“We can’t separate immigration from growth,” Lamm said. “We can either live in a Colorado of 16 million people or have some sanity for our grandchildren with it stabilized around 6 million people.”

Raul Armendariz, president of the board of directors of the Latin American Research and Service Agency, did not see Lamm’s plan as “sanity.”

“When you look at immigration policies in this country, they are very uneven in preference of immigrants from Europe versus Latin American and Asia,” Armendariz said. “That runs counter to the changing demography of this country.”

Armendariz said that immigrants performed vital services and contribute to the economy, rather than the other way around.

“If anything, immigrants are proving up the economy,” he said. “When you look at the extent of immigrants involved in service sectors … a lot of those jobs would be unfilled but for these immigrants who are ensuring that the business enterprises continue to grow and prosper.”

Rachael Wright is the author of several novels including The Twins of Strathnaver, with degrees in political science and History from Colorado Mesa University and is a contributing columnist to Colorado Politics, the Colorado Springs Gazette and The Denver Gazette.