Press Release Put Out by S4 Today:

Students for Saving Social Security, the nation's largest youth organization dedicated to reforming Social Security, today reacted to the news that the Center for American Progress, Rock the Vote and other youth organizations are misrepresenting our generation's views on personal accounts.

For starters, a recent economic survey by the Center for American Progress found that 74 percent of young people support personal accounts, but the organization then buried this statistic near the end of its survey report.

Titled "The Progressive Generation: How Young Adults Think About the Economy," the May 2008 survey sought to portray young people as broadly supportive of initiatives backed by the organization. A glaring exception to this portrayal was our generation's support for personal accounts, a finding not mentioned in the survey summary.

Instead, the authors buried near the end of the report that "Social Security is perhaps the one issue where Millennials [sic] views are not so progressive." The authors then proceeded to discount Millennials' support of personal accounts based on our age. The Center for American Progress did not use age to discount any of its other survey results.

"There is a clear implication that we are too young to understand the issue," said Jo Jensen, the executive director of Students for Saving Social Security. "Why ask young people what we think if you don't want to hear our answers?”

The buried statistic was recently dug up by reform opponent Michael Connery, a youth activist who blogs at The Nation. Connery used the statistic to argue that "progressive" organizations such as Rock the Vote should avoid discussing Social Security until after the Presidential election.

Specifically, Connery warned Rock the Vote against “engaging conservatives on the issue,” which would suggest that Rock the Vote has taken a political stance that is something other than conservative. Though Rock the Vote pledges to "tell it like it is," the group reneged on its commitment to participate in a youth entitlement conference just three days after the Connery article.

"Is Rock the Vote now openly partisan?" Jensen asked. "If not, how can Rock the Vote oppose something that 74 percent of young people support?"