US Presidential Candidates and Social Security
Social Security was established in 1935 with a clear objective – take care of the elderly. After the Great Depression it was a way to take care of, and provide, for the elderly in the US to ensure they would not fall into poverty. In order to achieve this goal the US started taking a percentage of every payroll check to go into this social security fund. The program works because the employed pays into it with every single paycheck. Those that worked for decades paid into the program expecting it to pay out during their retirement. Politicians like to refer to it as an “entitlement” program but the reality is American citizens paid for the program every single day when they went to work. The government did not bestow a retirement upon them out of the kindness of its heart – the American people paid into the program and allowed Uncle Sam to store their money its coffers until the time when they needed it.
Now that the baby boomer generation has started to retire the program is starting to go bankrupt. There are more people collecting Social Security then there are contributing to it – in part because unemployment is so high. With the elections in a couple of weeks it is important to know where the Presidential candidates stand on Social Security – as it impacts millions of Americans.
Romney has stated the following regarding the Social Security program:
“For the people who are already retired or 55 years of age and older, nothing changes. With Social Security–if you will, the 2.0 version for the next generations coming up– I’d lower the rate of inflation growth in the benefits received by higher-income recipients and keep the rate as it is now for lower income recipients. And I’d also add a year or two to the retirement age under Social Security. With regards to Medicare, again, for higher-income recipients, lower benefit, a premium support program which allows people to buy either current standard Medicare or a private plan.”
Obama was quoted as saying:
“I suspect that, on Social Security, we’ve got a somewhat similar position. Social Security is structurally sound. It’s going to have to be tweaked the way it was by Ronald Reagan and Democratic Speaker Tip O’Neill. But the basic structure is sound. But I want to talk about the values behind Social Security and Medicare–what’s called entitlements. You know, the name itself implies some sense of dependency on the part of these folks. These are folks who’ve worked hard, and there are millions of people out there who are counting on this. So my approach is to say, how do we strengthen the system over the long term? And in Medicare, what we did was we said, we are going to have to bring down the costs if we’re going to deal with our long-term deficits, but to do that, let’s look where some of the money’s going.”
The problem is neither candidate has really said much. They are vague and do not seem to have a concrete plan. Hopefully in the next four years whoever is elected will move from broad ideas to concepts that can be implemented. If not the Social Security program will become bankrupt and no longer able to help the elder and disabled as it was intended to do. “Disabled people rely on social security income. It protects their way of life.” – Frank Jenkins, Social Security Disability Attorney.
In order for the program to be salvaged their first needs to be more jobs created. The more people that are working – the more tax revenue is going into the program. Beyond that immediate need politicians need to take decisive action to save the program that millions of Americans have paid into.
