Social Security

By Mike Doyle

Some Republicans have raised the idea of reducing guaranteed Social Security benefits for future generations and creating risky private accounts where individuals' retirement savings would be gambled on Wall Street investments. I have opposed such proposals in the past, and I will oppose them whenever anyone proposes them.

I opposed Republican efforts in 2005 to privatize Social Security and to reduce future guaranteed benefits for all Social Security beneficiaries. I'm pleased to note that Democrats in Congress were successful in opposing President Bush's radical plan to privatize Social Security.

Thanks to Republican scare tactics, most people don't realize that the Social Security Trust fund can be made solvent for future generations with modest minor adjustments. For example, lifting the cap on payroll taxes so that millionaires pay the same percentage of their income into Social Security as minimum wage workers do would eliminate 95 percent of the Social Security Trust Fund's unfunded liabilities. That's just one of many ways we could eliminate the shortfall in the Social Security Trust Fund. Major benefit cuts aren't necessary to make Social Security Solvent in perpetuity, and adamantly oppose Social Security benefit cuts.