From the employees' standpoint, in 1935, Social Security was a big gamble. Employees would be required to participate in the program, contributing a percentage of their income for their entire adult working life.
- Wayne Allard
The information encoded in your DNA determines your unique biological characteristics, such as sex, eye color, age and Social Security number.
- Dave Barry
Privatizing Social Security will take dollars out of young folks' pockets.
- Max Baucus
The Social Security trust fund is in pretty good shape today and we should not embark upon risky, dangerous schemes which will, in fact, undermine Social Security, such as privatization.
- Max Baucus
The IRS is currently considering a rule that would make it easier for tax preparers to disclose the private information contained in tax returns - including name, address, Social Security number, employer, income, and charitable donations.
- Melissa Bean
Social security, bank account, and credit card numbers aren't just data. In the wrong hands they can wipe out someone's life savings, wreck their credit and cause financial ruin.
- Melissa Bean
The Social Security's medical consultants support the interest not of the victims but of the organization.
- Simone De Beauvoir
You need education. You need subsistence protection. We need jobs and social security. These are preconditions under which it will perhaps be possible to deal with these complex circumstances.
- Ulrich Beck
Not only is privatizing Social Security not the solution to Social Security, it would exacerbate the problem.
- Shelley Berkley
The economist John Maynard Keynes said that in the long run, we are all dead. If he were around today he might say that, in the long run, we are all on Social Security and Medicare.
- Ben Bernanke
Social Security's not the hard one to solve. Medicare, that is the gorilla in the room, and you've got to put all of it on the table.
- Joe Biden
No matter how you cut it, this real debate on personal accounts is about the legitimacy of Social Security; it's not about the solvency of Social Security.
- Joe Biden
Since 1935, this has been a pay-as-you-go system, and I always believed when I first started talking about Social Security that there was a little box that had my name on it and it had my benefits for when I retired. That is not true.
- Judy Biggert
I do think that Social Security reform needs to be bipartisan, and we are going to have to reach that in this debate at some time before we can find really meaningful reform.
- Judy Biggert
Right now, too many women who reach retirement age find themselves widowed or single, relying on their Social Security check for over half of their income.
- Judy Biggert
Social Security is not a retirement savings plan; it is a social insurance program. It's a contract that says, as a society, we will look out for you and your family when you can no longer work.
- Jeff Bingaman
We have to get control of our borders. You can only do that if you make companies obey the law and not hire undocumented or illegals. They can only do that is if they have a Social Security Card that has biometrics so they know whether the person is legal or not.
- Michael Bloomberg
I was too old for a paper route, too young for Social Security and too tired for an affair.
- Erma Bombeck
The main purpose of Social Security is to redistribute wealth, to make an increasingly large number of Americans dependent on government for their basic needs in their retirement years.
- Neal Boortz
My 80-year-old mother will not buy her heart medicine because it cost more than she can pay with social security. She is America.
- Jack Bowman
The White House has embarked on a mission to convince the people of our country that Social Security is in dire need of drastic change in order to save it for all workers.
- Barbara Boxer
I would love to see a march on Washington that says 'Save our Social Security'.
- Barbara Boxer
Workers organized and fought for worker rights and food safety, Social Security and Medicare - they fought to change government. And they won.
- Sherrod Brown
Knowledge is power. Most of us agree that something has to be done to strengthen Social Security, and I believe it's irresponsible to arbitrarily dismiss any idea, Republican nor Democrat, without giving it a hard look.
- Conrad Bums
They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program.
- George W Bush
The reality is that we are hated not because of our democracy, freedoms, and generous social security system; rather, we are hated because of our involvement in foreign conflicts and quarrels that were never our concern.
- Amir Butler
The money the president wants to borrow for Iraq will come directly out of the American taxpayer wallets in the form of Medicare and Social Security receipts. That's your money.
- Robert Byrd
Americans need accurate information in order to consider Social Security reform. Too bad the media can't be counted upon to provide it.
- Herman Cain
In order to fix Social Security, we must restructure it so that we continue to provide for our Nation's seniors that are approaching retirement age, but allow for younger taxpayers to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in private accounts.
- Herman Cain
Our constituents paid into Social Security, and they want it paid back to them when they retire. Cutting Social Security benefits that Americans have earned should always be a last resort.
- Dennis Cardoza
I'm dubious about having Social Security put into the stock market. I think that we have gotten very far away from the idea that there's something sacrosanct about retirement investments.
- Ron Chernow
The public has lost faith in the ability of Social Security and Medicare to provide for old age. They've lost faith in the banking system and in conventional medical insurance.
- Ron Chernow
Congress has changed the Social Security system over time, and over 20 times in the past Congress has raised taxes on Social Security in payroll taxes into the system.
- Chris Chocola
I believe it's time to put our best ideas on the table and work toward a bipartisan solution, with the single goal of leaving the Social Security system stronger than we found it.
- Chris Chocola
If we do not act now to strengthen Social Security, the system that so many depend upon today will be unable to meet its promises to tomorrow's retirees, and it will burden our children and grandchildren with exhaustive taxes.
- Chris Chocola
The rule for effective governance is simple. It is one Ronald Reagan knew by heart. And one that he successfully employed with Social Security and the Cold War. When there is a problem, you fix it. That is the job you have been sent to do and you cannot wait for someone else to do it for you.
- Chris Christie
Social Security is a covenant that should not be broken.
- Emanuel Cleaver
Should any political party attempt to abolish social security unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group of course that believes you can do these things. Among them are a few other Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.
- Dwight D Eisenhower
Currently, 94 out of 100 of us pay the Social Security tax all year round.
- Nick Clooney
A salute from this corner to President Bush for saying he was willing to investigate raising or eliminating the cap on salaries subject to the Social Security tax.
- Nick Clooney
Social Security is at last on the nation's front burner.
- Nick Clooney
In my opinion, the president is right to address future funding, even though Social Security will show a surplus through 2018 and will not run out of funds until 2042.
- Nick Clooney
The president and Republicans in Congress have repeatedly promised to revisit Social Security privatization after November. But Americans have already said, loud and clear, that they don't want Social Security to be privatized or dismantled.
- Jim Clyburn
Democrats are fighting for a new direction that includes protecting Social Security as well as making healthcare affordable, bringing down the high cost of gasoline, and making higher education more accessible for all Americans.
- Jim Clyburn
Social Security and Medicare represent promises made and we must keep these commitments.
- Tom Coburn
I believe keeping our promises should be our highest priority and that means saving Social Security and Medicare while preserving the American dream for our children and grandchildren.
- Tom Coburn
Let me be clear, the discussions about Social Security are not about the retirement security of those Americans who are 55 or older - the Social Security system for those folks 55 and over will not change in any way shape of form - no ifs, ands, or buts.
- Norm Coleman
Our society has changed in unforeseeable ways since Social Security was created. For example, we are living longer, healthier, and more productive lives and while this is all great news, this has also placed added pressure on America's retirement system.
- Norm Coleman
Today more people believe in UFOs than believe that Social Security will take care of their retirement.
- Scott Cook
The President's budget pays for only six months of the war in Iraq and completely overlooks the transition costs of Social Security reform. The Administration always lied about the cost of the Medicare drug bill.
- Jim Cooper
As a matter of fact, if you do not take into account, as Congressman Ross just stated, the Social Security surplus, our fiscal deficit, ladies and gentlemen, is over $700 billion today.
- Jim Costa
The mortal enemies of Social Security and Medicare are those who, in contempt of the plain arithmetic, continue to mislead Americans that we should change nothing.
- Mitch Daniels
The fine print in the President's Social Security proposal is that all present and future workers under age 55 will have their promised retirement benefits cut.
- Mark Dayton
If the economy is strained, then Social Security, like the rest of the government, will be, too.
- Mark Dayton
The Bush Administration claims there is a Social Security crisis only to distract Americans from its serious mismanagement of the federal budget.
- Mark Dayton
The national debate on Social Security has been cheapened by demagoguery on all sides.
- Bill Delahunt
It's hard to exaggerate the importance of preserving the financial integrity of Social Security.
- Bill Delahunt
I think we will begin to see some real efforts made to do things like protecting Social Security and Medicare.
- John Dingell
President Roosevelt, the author of Social Security, was the first to suggest that, in order to provide for the country's retirement needs, Social Security would need to be supplemented by personal savings accounts.
- John Doolittle
In light of these facts Republicans have put forth a variety of proposals to make Social Security remain solvent for future generations. But up to this point, Democrats have chosen to oppose our good faith efforts and insist that indeed there is no problem.
- John Doolittle
If a movie is really working, you forget for two hours your Social Security number and where your car is parked. You are having a vicarious experience. You are identifying, in one way or another, with the people on the screen.
- Roger Ebert
According to the Social Security Administration, in 1945, 41.9 workers supported each individual retiree, while today only 3.3 workers support each retiree. This system cannot continue.
- Larry Elder
With Ice Cube they ain't no telling. He might have one cocked and loaded, ready to bust. We might do The Sunday, two old men sitting around the house waiting on the social security check.
- Mike Epps
A Harris poll I've seen says only 12 percent of the electorate names taxes as one of the most important issues facing the nation. Voters put tax cuts dead last, behind education, Social Security, health care, Medicare and poverty.
- Lane Evans
Without Social Security, poverty rates for African American seniors would more than double.
- Chaka Fattah
Currently, more than 4.7 million African Americans receive Social Security benefits, and nearly 8 million people with disabilities depend on Social Security for their daily sustenance.
- Chaka Fattah
While Social Security faces some long-term challenges, the system is not in crisis.
- Chaka Fattah
I will work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to preserve the Social Security promise that provides secure retirement benefits for all, especially those who are most at risk such as widows, orphans, and people with disabilities when the need arises.
- Chaka Fattah
What will we do in a globalised world? All human beings are equal, so they have the same right to have the same lifestyle-the same social security, jobs, education.
- Joschka Fischer
Make no mistake, if the payroll-tax cut is extended, it will become permanent. Social Security will become another welfare program as the tie between what someone pays and what they receive gets broken.
- Ari Fleischer
I favor the abolition of all Social Security, Medicare and estate taxes. In their place, we should create a simple income tax system that has no deductions or credits at all.
- Ari Fleischer
Social Security is one of the greatest achievements of the American government, protecting our elderly against poverty and assuring young people of a more secure future.
- Mark Foley
One poll shows that by 61 percent to 29 percent Americans under 40 say that Social Security needs to be fixed.
- Virginia Foxx
The life expectancy is much longer today than it was when Social Security was created.
- Virginia Foxx
This is my first term. I was told it was going to be an exciting term, and a lot of things would be done, and I cannot think about something more exciting than save Social Security.
- Virginia Foxx
Social Security, a critically important, great program which does serve as the cornerstone of support for senior citizens, now faces challenges that threaten its long-term stability and well-being. The facts are there. The facts are crystal clear.
- Bill Frist
We will keep the promise of Social Security by taking the responsible steps to strengthen it - not by turning it over to Wall Street.
- Barack Obama
It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. The 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans. The cornerstones of the middle-class security all bear the union label.
- Barack Obama
...the process by which wants are now synthesized is a potential source of economic instability. Production and therewith employment and social security are dependent on an inherently unstable process of consumer debt creation. This may one day falter.
- John Kenneth Galbraith
All of us who serve in the House of Representatives and the Senate pay into Social Security.
- Virgil Goode
Social Security's future has gotten worse, and each year we delay reform adds to the cost we are pushing off onto our children.
- John Goodman
Social Security must be preserved and strengthened. But we need to be candid about the costs and willing to make the tough choices that real reform will require.
- Lindsey Graham
You know, and younger people today, you know, they may not have Social Security. They may not have a pension. They may have 17 different jobs. And so they have to be - they have to, you know, establish somewhat of an ownership, you know, mentality.
- Stedman Graham
Mr. Speaker, Americans want, need, and rightfully expect Congress to protect them from the prying eyes of identity thieves and give them back control of their Social Security numbers and personal health information.
- Luis Gutierrez
And let us not forget the Social Security system. Recent studies show that undocumented workers sustain the Social Security system with a subsidy as much as $7 billion a year. Let me repeat that: $7 billion a year.
- Luis Gutierrez
Even people who feel perfectly comfortable investing in the stock market and owning their own homes often have qualms about individual medical accounts or Social Security private accounts.
- Jacob Hacker
Well, let's go back to the original intent of Social Security. It is an insurance contract.
- Chuck Hagel
We want to make sure that Social Security is fixed for those people who have had that promise and there's something in the future for our younger workers. And we're not about to do a welfare program.
- Dennis Hastert
The full retirement age is 67 and the lifespan is 80, so when they first conceived Social Security, they didn't think they were going to be paying benefits for 13-15 years. That's one of the reasons why this pyramid scheme isn't working.
- Joe Heck
We know that Medicare is set to go bankrupt in 2024 with no action, and social security is set to be insolvent by 2037.
- Joe Heck
The Roosevelt enactment of Social Security was a moral revolution in our country: We were assured that we would never reach the very depths of poverty. And to be told, that we are now going to gamble it, on Wall Street, is nonsense!
- Arthur Hertzberg
I oppose the president's plan to privatize Social Security.
- Brian Higgins
We're an air bag society that wants guarantees on everything that we buy. We want to be able to take everything back and get another one. We want a 401-k plan and Social Security.
- James Hillman
The privatization plan weakens Social Security and threatens our economic security by creating trillions of dollars in new debt.
- Ruben Hinojosa
However, the Administration's plan to privatize Social Security will undermine retirement security for all Americans by cutting guaranteed benefits by more than 40 percent, and risky private accounts won't make up for the loss of benefits for millions of Americans.
- Ruben Hinojosa
Our country also hungers for leadership to ensure the long-term survival of our Social Security system. With 70 million baby boomers in this country on the verge of retirement, we need to take action to shore up the system.
- Kay Bailey Hutchison
If it were the Clinton people, they'd be sitting around figuring out how to pull themselves out. Instead the president is continuing to go around the country and peddling Social Security, which the needle is not moving on.
- Gwen Ifill
Yes, prudently invested contributions to the Social Security fund may bring greater dividends, but those contributions would also face a greater risk. It would be like gambling. We should not gamble with the investments and the future of the citizens of this land.
- Daniel Inouye
Since Social Security was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 to ensure economic security for American workers, poverty among American seniors has dramatically declined.
- Steve Israel
The President and I agree that Social Security needs to be preserved so that we can ensure that all Americans receive the retirement benefits they've been promised. But we disagree as to how best to fix the system.
- Steve Israel
As you know, Social Security functions under the premise that today's workers will help finance benefits for retirees and that these workers will then be supported by the next generation of workers paying into the same system.
- Steve Israel
I believe that social security should be a universal retirement guarantee and not means tested.
- Steve Israel
You can be sure that I will always consider how changes to Social Security will impact people with disabilities when considering the various proposals offered for reform.
- Steve Israel
I believe that as a nation we must have a bipartisan discussion about how to best preserve and protect Social Security for our seniors and for future generations of Americans.
- Steve Israel
For these reasons, women tend to rely more heavily on Social Security in their retirement than do men.
- Steve Israel
America should meet its obligations in the form of Social Security, Medicare, our ability to pay our military, legally binding legislation that allows unemployment compensation, the judiciary, the federal court system, the federal prison system, all those kinds of things have to be paid for.
- Bill Johnson
It's not 2038 that Social Security is bankrupt. It's now.
- Gary Johnson
Race to race, the Republicans are putting up candidates that are quite far out of the mainstream in terms of should we have passed the Civil Rights Act or does Social Security need to exist.
- Tim Kaine
With or without a Social Security fix, Americans don't have enough assets to retire on. There has to be a much larger debate.
- Frank Keating
I am staunchly committed to ensuring the long-term solvency of Social Security and preserving full benefits for Americans who have spent their entire working lives contributing to this program.
- Sue Kelly
Social Security is the very foundation of retirement security for millions of Americans.
- Sue Kelly
But there is a need to explore ways we can preserve the promise of Social Security for future generations.
- Sue Kelly
All Americans have a sacred duty to guarantee Social Security benefits to our nation's senior citizens.
- Steve King
Most people understand life expectancy has changed since Social Security started in 1937 when folks lived to be 59 years old. Today, they live to be 77 years old.
- Jack Kingston
What I would ask the Democrat Party is to put your plan on the table, because most people agree with the facts, and the facts are that Social Security is running out of money.
- Jack Kingston
I wish that the Democrats would put some effort into Social Security reform, illegal immigration's reform, tax reform, or some of the other real issues that are out there.
- Jack Kingston
I welcome the Democrats' ideas on Social Security. I think it is very important to make a bipartisan reform.
- Jack Kingston
I think Social Security should be bipartisan and it should transcend the next election, and you should get the best ideas of the Democrats and of the Republicans, and move forward with the best.
- Jack Kingston
We need to take steps to strengthen and mend Social Security so that its promise of a secure retirement is just as real for seniors in the future as it is today.
- Herb Kohl
I've never denied my sexual orientation. I just don't make a point of it. It isn't what I do. Clearly, I'm known for the work I've done on trade and Social Security.
- Jim Kolbe
Social Security is a social insurance program - it is not designed to be the same thing as a 401(k).
- Paul Krugman
Wake up America!
The insurance companies took over health care!
Wake up America!
The pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing!
Wake up America!
The speculators took over Wall Street!
Wake up America!
They want your Social Security!
Wake up America!
Multinational corporations took over our trade policies!
Wake up America!
We went into Iraq for oil!
WAKE UP AMERICA!
- Dennis Kucinich
I agree that we must expand opportunities for retirement saving, but we must not undermine this worthy effort with a flawed privatization scheme that takes the 'security' out of Social Security.
- Mary Landrieu
Drawing on President Bush's reform plan, which would allow citizens to transfer part of their Social Security contributions into personal accounts, an alteration of the current system is needed to make necessary change.
- James A Leach
When I look at Social Security, I consider it the most important social program in the United States, arguably the most successful program in the world.
- James A Leach
While it is clear that we need to make some adjustments to protect Social Security for the long term, it is disingenuous to say that the trust fund is facing a crisis.
- Carl Levin
Social Security is something that we need to deal with, because people who are working today, who will retire in the future, people who are retired today, they have a right - and it's part of the compact that they can depend on their benefits. We should fix the long-term funding problem of Social Security because that's the right thing to do.
- Jacob Lew
I've never seen a constructive Social Security debate that started with one side digging in, in one place and another side digging into another.
- Jacob Lew
The reason to deal with Social Security is that it is a system where we have a tradition and history of making sure it is solidly funded for 75 years. At the moment, we look out and we see it is solidly funded until 2037.
- Jacob Lew
I think it's very important not to confuse the importance of dealing with Social Security in the long term with these short-term deficit reduction challenges. They're different issues.
- Jacob Lew
It is time for the general fund to pay the Social Security fund back.
- Jacob Lew
We must carefully consider card security solutions, such as adding photographs or machine-readable electronic strips, so to prevent further breaches of individual privacy that could result from changes to the design of Social Security Cards.
- Ron Lewis
Though Congress continues to explore possible solutions to ensure social security solvency, everyone must take personal responsibility to prepare their own retirement savings accordingly.
- Ron Lewis
Since Social Security faces a large gap between what it promises younger workers and what it can afford to pay them, private savings will likely need to play a larger role in retirement planning for younger workers.
- Ron Lewis
Without significant reform, the Social Security Administration will be legally and financially unable to pay full promised benefits within a generation.
- Ron Lewis
Social Security Number Cards by themselves were never intended to be personal identity documents because they cannot confirm that a person presenting a card is actually the person whose name appears on the card.
- Ron Lewis
Not too many years ago, both parties acknowledged that our entitlement commitments were a sword hanging over our heads. But when President George W. Bush tried to begin discussions on Social Security reform, Democrats ridiculed and demonized him and told seniors he was after their nest eggs.
- David Limbaugh
Will some reporter, or some Republican on the Sunday shows, please ask why tax cuts raid the non-existent Social Security Trust Fund but all the Democrats' new spending doesn't? Will someone please ask that?
- Rush Limbaugh
Social Security not only helps Americans enjoy a secure retirement, it has also kept millions of Americans out of poverty.
- Zoe Lofgren
Social security isn't a ponzi scheme. It's not bankrupting us. It's not an outrage. It is working.
- Rachel Maddow
Do I want Social Security to be there for my kids and my grandkids? Absolutely. Will I fight like a tiger to make sure that we protect Social Security? I absolutely will.
- Claire Mccaskill
You know, we've got to be responsible about our debt. We don't want the United States to ever be a dead beat, and not be able to pay its bills, either to our soldiers who are fighting or to Social Security recipients.
- Claire Mccaskill
We all know that Social Security is one of this country's greatest success stories in the 20th century.
- Mitch Mcconnell
There is a lot of room for improvement in Social Security. We owe our children the most financially sound system possible. They will have paid into it their entire working lives. They deserve to be protected by it. for our children and grandchildren.
- Mitch Mcconnell
We need to strengthen and save Social Security for today's workers. If we don't act now, this system, born out of the New Deal, will become a bad deal.
- Mitch Mcconnell
More young people believe they'll see a U.F.O. than that they'll see their own Social Security benefits.
- Mitch Mcconnell
The money that goes into Social Security is not the government's money. it's your money. You paid for it.
- Mitch Mcconnell
Cynically but accurately put, Americans oppose public intervention or regulation if it helps others, but favor it if it helps them - take social security, disaster relief, public works projects, for example.
- Jon Meacham
I am a huge admirer of Franklin Roosevelt's, and I believe social security has done untold good in alleviating the once-widespread issue of poverty among the elderly. FDR believed in the greatness and generosity of Americans - but he was also a cold-blooded politician.
- Jon Meacham
Why shouldn't future generations and young Americans have the choice to earn a higher rate of return? Why shouldn't they be able to own their own Social Security so that Congress can't spend it on other things?
- Ken Mehlman
I am emphatically against the privatization of Social Security. It is going to hurt millions of American women, American families and ultimately the whole country.
- Barbara Mikulski
When one gets old and they are sick, there are not many things they can count on but they should be able to count on Social Security. Our seniors' retirement should never rely on the bull of political promises or the bear of the market.
- Barbara Mikulski
Women would be disproportionately affected by the privatization of social security. It is one of the most important safety nets for American women in old age, or in times of disability, to insure financial income for their families.
- Barbara Mikulski
It is not secret here in Congress we have not had the discipline in many instances to keep our hands out of the cookie jar of Social Security. Now to stop this I propose that in the future that Congress cannot get its hands on the money in the first place.
- Jeff Miller
I believe that it is irresponsible, it is basically part of the crisis of leadership in D.C. to not look at Social Security and understand that there has got to be a solution posed. We've got to take a look at it and make sure that we create a solution so our seniors aren't left out in the cold.
- Joe Miller
Social Security, for example - I'm 43. I've paid into the system. You know what? That money has been stolen from me. I know that my parents who are on Social Security - they've got to continue to receive it. They're dependent on it. It is their primary source of income.
- Joe Miller
What we should be trying to do is to encourage people to establish private retirement accounts and help them take pressure off the Social Security system.
- Dennis Moore
Funding privatized accounts with Social Security dollars would not only make the program's long term problems worse, but many believe it represents a first step toward undermining the program's fundamental goals.
- Patty Murray
Almost half of all Latinas currently on Social Security rely exclusively on their benefit check in retirement.
- Grace Napolitano
Social Security has been effective for 70 years; prior predictions of its demise have been totally overstated.
- Grace Napolitano
The president's claim that Social Security is going broke is misleading at best. The sky is not falling, although there is no doubt that the system needs to be strengthened.
- Grace Napolitano
There is a need for Social Security reform to ensure its stability, and Congress must act.
- Grace Napolitano
Even without reforms, the Social Security fund will be able to meet 100 percent of its obligations until 2042.
- Grace Napolitano
Because Social Security is specifically designed to boost the retirement income of low earners with a progressive benefit formula, the program has played an enormous and necessary role in keeping Latinas out of poverty.
- Grace Napolitano
Because of my own experience with market fluctuation, I recognize the great risks one takes on investments. This converts the Social Security safety net into a risky proposition many cannot afford to take.
- Grace Napolitano
We must work to stabilize Social Security. We must not gamble with our nation's social insurance program, one of our most popular and effective federal programs that has remained dependable and stable for the past 70 years.
- Grace Napolitano
To allow all U.S. workers to put part of their earnings into private investment accounts would definitely erode the Social Security system and cause uncertainty for new investors.
- Grace Napolitano
We must level with the people and explain to them that Social Security will first face funding problems in 2042 that can be fixed now with changes that do not undermine and ultimately drain from the entire program.
- Grace Napolitano
Our Hispanic community needs to understand how important the Social Security system is for not only its retired citizens, but also its disabled workers.
- Grace Napolitano
Our political leaders must be honest and forthcoming with data that will allow citizens to use facts and figures to judge for themselves what state Social Security is in.
- Grace Napolitano
President Bush is manufacturing a crisis by suggesting that Social Security is in imminent danger. It is not.
- Richard Neal
Under the Bush plan, Social Security gets weaker, not stronger.
- Richard Neal
We can preserve Social Security benefits for generations of Americans without privatizing this important program.
- Richard Neal
Our fiat currency is under increasing stress with our large and growing trade deficits. We have a federal deficit that is calculated in the trillions when we take into account the net present value of the future Social Security and Medicaid obligations we are creating today.
- George Noory
Social Security faces a long-term actuarial deficit, yes.
- Peter Orszag
Let's means-test benefits - let's means-test Social Security and Medicare and make the rich pay more for these benefits.
- Rand Paul
Social Security has never failed to pay promised benefits, and Democrats will fight to make sure that Republicans do not turn a guaranteed benefit into a guaranteed gamble.
- Nancy Pelosi
For more than forty years, the United States Congress has shamelessly used payroll taxes intended for Social Security to fund big government spending.
- Mike Pence
It's time to stop the raid on the Social Security trust fund and start allowing Americans to invest their Social Security taxes in personal savings accounts.
- Mike Pence
By requiring that any surplus in Social Security taxes be returned to the American people in personal savings accounts, the plan ensures that Social Security taxes will be used for Social Security.
- Mike Pence
By comparison, George W. Bush was light and breezy and apparently forgot during one debate that Social Security was a federal program. In fact, his depth, and his unfamiliarity with the complexities of the issues, to say nothing of the simple declarative sentence, worked remarkably to his advantage.
- Charles P Pierce
You've got to stop and ask yourself once in a while...why some asinine politicians would quicker cut out social security than the space program...Go figure.
- Timothy Pina
Ultimately I think what people care about, particularly on an issue like Social Security, is not really what's right and what's left but what's right and what's wrong.
- John Podesta
If you can't even acknowledge that you have to fix Social Security, that's not a very good starting point.
- Rob Portman
Obama has demonstrated no desire to make tough choices. Americans demand a more efficient, effective government, but his budget calls for more taxes and more spending. It employs deceptive accounting gimmicks but does nothing to tackle long-term entitlement problems, nothing to save Medicare or fix Social Security.
- Reince Priebus
Spending when the math's not there and the numbers aren't there and if they look in the social security trust fund, it's filled with IOUs because the government's been pilfering it for years on end. We have to do something. We have to start having this discussion.
- Ben Quayle
And in terms of entitlement reforms, we have to save them from themselves, because if we don't reform social security and we don't reform Medicare, they're going to actually implode.
- Ben Quayle
I would hope that we could have this in an adult fashion and stop demagogueing the issue anytime you talk about any substantive reforms that will actually save social security and save Medicare and save the system from imploding on itself.
- Ben Quayle
If you got problems like unemployment, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and there's a guy that's always been there for you and for your family, then you say 'He's a nice guy. I don't know where he came from or how long he's been here, but Charlie Rangel's the man.' That's what I'm relying on.
- Charles Rangel
And it's also producing a growth in debt to the United States that will weight very heavily in a country that has to address issues like having more old people to be covered by Social Security or by pension in the future.
- Rodrigo Rato
The President has no real plan to address the fiscal challenges arising from the retirement of the baby boom generation, let alone a plan to fix Social Security.
- Jack Reed
The administration is manufacturing a crisis that does not exist in order to dismantle Social Security.
- Jack Reed
What I heard was that Bush is now positioned to have victory after victory. He'll have Social Security reform passed, that he'll have tax reform passed, that he'll have conservative judges on the courts.
- Pat Robertson
The remarks about my reaching the age of Social Security and coming to the end of the road, they jolted me. And that was good. Because I sure as hell had no intention of just sitting around for the rest of my life. So I'd whip out the paints and really go to it.
- Norman Rockwell
In fact, entitlement spending on programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security make up 54% of federal spending, and spending is projected to double within the next decade. Medicare is growing by 9% annually, and Medicaid by 8% annually.
- Jim Ryun
The American people I talk to don't spend every moment thinking, 'How can I tax my neighbor more than they're being taxed?' They say, 'How can I get a good job? How can my kids get good jobs? How can seniors have a confidence in their future when they know that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are bankrupt?'
- Mitt Romney
It has to have a payroll tax that's dedicated to Social Security. The Social Security tax has been very successful over the years in raising almost all of our elderly citizens out of poverty.
- James Roosevelt
Even the Congressional Budget Office and the Social Security trustees appointed by the president say that Social Security is financially sound, without any changes for the next 40 to 50 years.
- James Roosevelt
Social Security should have a self-sustaining portion that was funded by contributions from both employers and employees. That's what we know and have known for 70 successful years.
- James Roosevelt
Small changes done now would preserve Social Security at full benefit.
- James Roosevelt
But here's what I would tell people of my generation. I turn 40 this year. There isn't going to be a Social Security. There isn't going to be a Medicare when you retire. Forget about what your benefit is going to look like. There isn't going to be one if we don't make some reforms to save that program now.
- Marco Rubio
- Wayne Allard
The information encoded in your DNA determines your unique biological characteristics, such as sex, eye color, age and Social Security number.
- Dave Barry
Privatizing Social Security will take dollars out of young folks' pockets.
- Max Baucus
The Social Security trust fund is in pretty good shape today and we should not embark upon risky, dangerous schemes which will, in fact, undermine Social Security, such as privatization.
- Max Baucus
The IRS is currently considering a rule that would make it easier for tax preparers to disclose the private information contained in tax returns - including name, address, Social Security number, employer, income, and charitable donations.
- Melissa Bean
Social security, bank account, and credit card numbers aren't just data. In the wrong hands they can wipe out someone's life savings, wreck their credit and cause financial ruin.
- Melissa Bean
The Social Security's medical consultants support the interest not of the victims but of the organization.
- Simone De Beauvoir
You need education. You need subsistence protection. We need jobs and social security. These are preconditions under which it will perhaps be possible to deal with these complex circumstances.
- Ulrich Beck
Not only is privatizing Social Security not the solution to Social Security, it would exacerbate the problem.
- Shelley Berkley
The economist John Maynard Keynes said that in the long run, we are all dead. If he were around today he might say that, in the long run, we are all on Social Security and Medicare.
- Ben Bernanke
Social Security's not the hard one to solve. Medicare, that is the gorilla in the room, and you've got to put all of it on the table.
- Joe Biden
No matter how you cut it, this real debate on personal accounts is about the legitimacy of Social Security; it's not about the solvency of Social Security.
- Joe Biden
Since 1935, this has been a pay-as-you-go system, and I always believed when I first started talking about Social Security that there was a little box that had my name on it and it had my benefits for when I retired. That is not true.
- Judy Biggert
I do think that Social Security reform needs to be bipartisan, and we are going to have to reach that in this debate at some time before we can find really meaningful reform.
- Judy Biggert
Right now, too many women who reach retirement age find themselves widowed or single, relying on their Social Security check for over half of their income.
- Judy Biggert
Social Security is not a retirement savings plan; it is a social insurance program. It's a contract that says, as a society, we will look out for you and your family when you can no longer work.
- Jeff Bingaman
We have to get control of our borders. You can only do that if you make companies obey the law and not hire undocumented or illegals. They can only do that is if they have a Social Security Card that has biometrics so they know whether the person is legal or not.
- Michael Bloomberg
I was too old for a paper route, too young for Social Security and too tired for an affair.
- Erma Bombeck
The main purpose of Social Security is to redistribute wealth, to make an increasingly large number of Americans dependent on government for their basic needs in their retirement years.
- Neal Boortz
My 80-year-old mother will not buy her heart medicine because it cost more than she can pay with social security. She is America.
- Jack Bowman
The White House has embarked on a mission to convince the people of our country that Social Security is in dire need of drastic change in order to save it for all workers.
- Barbara Boxer
I would love to see a march on Washington that says 'Save our Social Security'.
- Barbara Boxer
Workers organized and fought for worker rights and food safety, Social Security and Medicare - they fought to change government. And they won.
- Sherrod Brown
Knowledge is power. Most of us agree that something has to be done to strengthen Social Security, and I believe it's irresponsible to arbitrarily dismiss any idea, Republican nor Democrat, without giving it a hard look.
- Conrad Bums
They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program.
- George W Bush
The reality is that we are hated not because of our democracy, freedoms, and generous social security system; rather, we are hated because of our involvement in foreign conflicts and quarrels that were never our concern.
- Amir Butler
The money the president wants to borrow for Iraq will come directly out of the American taxpayer wallets in the form of Medicare and Social Security receipts. That's your money.
- Robert Byrd
Americans need accurate information in order to consider Social Security reform. Too bad the media can't be counted upon to provide it.
- Herman Cain
In order to fix Social Security, we must restructure it so that we continue to provide for our Nation's seniors that are approaching retirement age, but allow for younger taxpayers to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in private accounts.
- Herman Cain
Our constituents paid into Social Security, and they want it paid back to them when they retire. Cutting Social Security benefits that Americans have earned should always be a last resort.
- Dennis Cardoza
I'm dubious about having Social Security put into the stock market. I think that we have gotten very far away from the idea that there's something sacrosanct about retirement investments.
- Ron Chernow
The public has lost faith in the ability of Social Security and Medicare to provide for old age. They've lost faith in the banking system and in conventional medical insurance.
- Ron Chernow
Congress has changed the Social Security system over time, and over 20 times in the past Congress has raised taxes on Social Security in payroll taxes into the system.
- Chris Chocola
I believe it's time to put our best ideas on the table and work toward a bipartisan solution, with the single goal of leaving the Social Security system stronger than we found it.
- Chris Chocola
If we do not act now to strengthen Social Security, the system that so many depend upon today will be unable to meet its promises to tomorrow's retirees, and it will burden our children and grandchildren with exhaustive taxes.
- Chris Chocola
The rule for effective governance is simple. It is one Ronald Reagan knew by heart. And one that he successfully employed with Social Security and the Cold War. When there is a problem, you fix it. That is the job you have been sent to do and you cannot wait for someone else to do it for you.
- Chris Christie
Social Security is a covenant that should not be broken.
- Emanuel Cleaver
Should any political party attempt to abolish social security unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group of course that believes you can do these things. Among them are a few other Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.
- Dwight D Eisenhower
Currently, 94 out of 100 of us pay the Social Security tax all year round.
- Nick Clooney
A salute from this corner to President Bush for saying he was willing to investigate raising or eliminating the cap on salaries subject to the Social Security tax.
- Nick Clooney
Social Security is at last on the nation's front burner.
- Nick Clooney
In my opinion, the president is right to address future funding, even though Social Security will show a surplus through 2018 and will not run out of funds until 2042.
- Nick Clooney
The president and Republicans in Congress have repeatedly promised to revisit Social Security privatization after November. But Americans have already said, loud and clear, that they don't want Social Security to be privatized or dismantled.
- Jim Clyburn
Democrats are fighting for a new direction that includes protecting Social Security as well as making healthcare affordable, bringing down the high cost of gasoline, and making higher education more accessible for all Americans.
- Jim Clyburn
Social Security and Medicare represent promises made and we must keep these commitments.
- Tom Coburn
I believe keeping our promises should be our highest priority and that means saving Social Security and Medicare while preserving the American dream for our children and grandchildren.
- Tom Coburn
Let me be clear, the discussions about Social Security are not about the retirement security of those Americans who are 55 or older - the Social Security system for those folks 55 and over will not change in any way shape of form - no ifs, ands, or buts.
- Norm Coleman
Our society has changed in unforeseeable ways since Social Security was created. For example, we are living longer, healthier, and more productive lives and while this is all great news, this has also placed added pressure on America's retirement system.
- Norm Coleman
Today more people believe in UFOs than believe that Social Security will take care of their retirement.
- Scott Cook
The President's budget pays for only six months of the war in Iraq and completely overlooks the transition costs of Social Security reform. The Administration always lied about the cost of the Medicare drug bill.
- Jim Cooper
As a matter of fact, if you do not take into account, as Congressman Ross just stated, the Social Security surplus, our fiscal deficit, ladies and gentlemen, is over $700 billion today.
- Jim Costa
The mortal enemies of Social Security and Medicare are those who, in contempt of the plain arithmetic, continue to mislead Americans that we should change nothing.
- Mitch Daniels
The fine print in the President's Social Security proposal is that all present and future workers under age 55 will have their promised retirement benefits cut.
- Mark Dayton
If the economy is strained, then Social Security, like the rest of the government, will be, too.
- Mark Dayton
The Bush Administration claims there is a Social Security crisis only to distract Americans from its serious mismanagement of the federal budget.
- Mark Dayton
The national debate on Social Security has been cheapened by demagoguery on all sides.
- Bill Delahunt
It's hard to exaggerate the importance of preserving the financial integrity of Social Security.
- Bill Delahunt
I think we will begin to see some real efforts made to do things like protecting Social Security and Medicare.
- John Dingell
President Roosevelt, the author of Social Security, was the first to suggest that, in order to provide for the country's retirement needs, Social Security would need to be supplemented by personal savings accounts.
- John Doolittle
In light of these facts Republicans have put forth a variety of proposals to make Social Security remain solvent for future generations. But up to this point, Democrats have chosen to oppose our good faith efforts and insist that indeed there is no problem.
- John Doolittle
If a movie is really working, you forget for two hours your Social Security number and where your car is parked. You are having a vicarious experience. You are identifying, in one way or another, with the people on the screen.
- Roger Ebert
According to the Social Security Administration, in 1945, 41.9 workers supported each individual retiree, while today only 3.3 workers support each retiree. This system cannot continue.
- Larry Elder
With Ice Cube they ain't no telling. He might have one cocked and loaded, ready to bust. We might do The Sunday, two old men sitting around the house waiting on the social security check.
- Mike Epps
A Harris poll I've seen says only 12 percent of the electorate names taxes as one of the most important issues facing the nation. Voters put tax cuts dead last, behind education, Social Security, health care, Medicare and poverty.
- Lane Evans
Without Social Security, poverty rates for African American seniors would more than double.
- Chaka Fattah
Currently, more than 4.7 million African Americans receive Social Security benefits, and nearly 8 million people with disabilities depend on Social Security for their daily sustenance.
- Chaka Fattah
While Social Security faces some long-term challenges, the system is not in crisis.
- Chaka Fattah
I will work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to preserve the Social Security promise that provides secure retirement benefits for all, especially those who are most at risk such as widows, orphans, and people with disabilities when the need arises.
- Chaka Fattah
What will we do in a globalised world? All human beings are equal, so they have the same right to have the same lifestyle-the same social security, jobs, education.
- Joschka Fischer
Make no mistake, if the payroll-tax cut is extended, it will become permanent. Social Security will become another welfare program as the tie between what someone pays and what they receive gets broken.
- Ari Fleischer
I favor the abolition of all Social Security, Medicare and estate taxes. In their place, we should create a simple income tax system that has no deductions or credits at all.
- Ari Fleischer
Social Security is one of the greatest achievements of the American government, protecting our elderly against poverty and assuring young people of a more secure future.
- Mark Foley
One poll shows that by 61 percent to 29 percent Americans under 40 say that Social Security needs to be fixed.
- Virginia Foxx
The life expectancy is much longer today than it was when Social Security was created.
- Virginia Foxx
This is my first term. I was told it was going to be an exciting term, and a lot of things would be done, and I cannot think about something more exciting than save Social Security.
- Virginia Foxx
Social Security, a critically important, great program which does serve as the cornerstone of support for senior citizens, now faces challenges that threaten its long-term stability and well-being. The facts are there. The facts are crystal clear.
- Bill Frist
We will keep the promise of Social Security by taking the responsible steps to strengthen it - not by turning it over to Wall Street.
- Barack Obama
It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. The 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans. The cornerstones of the middle-class security all bear the union label.
- Barack Obama
...the process by which wants are now synthesized is a potential source of economic instability. Production and therewith employment and social security are dependent on an inherently unstable process of consumer debt creation. This may one day falter.
- John Kenneth Galbraith
All of us who serve in the House of Representatives and the Senate pay into Social Security.
- Virgil Goode
Social Security's future has gotten worse, and each year we delay reform adds to the cost we are pushing off onto our children.
- John Goodman
Social Security must be preserved and strengthened. But we need to be candid about the costs and willing to make the tough choices that real reform will require.
- Lindsey Graham
You know, and younger people today, you know, they may not have Social Security. They may not have a pension. They may have 17 different jobs. And so they have to be - they have to, you know, establish somewhat of an ownership, you know, mentality.
- Stedman Graham
Mr. Speaker, Americans want, need, and rightfully expect Congress to protect them from the prying eyes of identity thieves and give them back control of their Social Security numbers and personal health information.
- Luis Gutierrez
And let us not forget the Social Security system. Recent studies show that undocumented workers sustain the Social Security system with a subsidy as much as $7 billion a year. Let me repeat that: $7 billion a year.
- Luis Gutierrez
Even people who feel perfectly comfortable investing in the stock market and owning their own homes often have qualms about individual medical accounts or Social Security private accounts.
- Jacob Hacker
Well, let's go back to the original intent of Social Security. It is an insurance contract.
- Chuck Hagel
We want to make sure that Social Security is fixed for those people who have had that promise and there's something in the future for our younger workers. And we're not about to do a welfare program.
- Dennis Hastert
The full retirement age is 67 and the lifespan is 80, so when they first conceived Social Security, they didn't think they were going to be paying benefits for 13-15 years. That's one of the reasons why this pyramid scheme isn't working.
- Joe Heck
We know that Medicare is set to go bankrupt in 2024 with no action, and social security is set to be insolvent by 2037.
- Joe Heck
The Roosevelt enactment of Social Security was a moral revolution in our country: We were assured that we would never reach the very depths of poverty. And to be told, that we are now going to gamble it, on Wall Street, is nonsense!
- Arthur Hertzberg
I oppose the president's plan to privatize Social Security.
- Brian Higgins
We're an air bag society that wants guarantees on everything that we buy. We want to be able to take everything back and get another one. We want a 401-k plan and Social Security.
- James Hillman
The privatization plan weakens Social Security and threatens our economic security by creating trillions of dollars in new debt.
- Ruben Hinojosa
However, the Administration's plan to privatize Social Security will undermine retirement security for all Americans by cutting guaranteed benefits by more than 40 percent, and risky private accounts won't make up for the loss of benefits for millions of Americans.
- Ruben Hinojosa
Our country also hungers for leadership to ensure the long-term survival of our Social Security system. With 70 million baby boomers in this country on the verge of retirement, we need to take action to shore up the system.
- Kay Bailey Hutchison
If it were the Clinton people, they'd be sitting around figuring out how to pull themselves out. Instead the president is continuing to go around the country and peddling Social Security, which the needle is not moving on.
- Gwen Ifill
Yes, prudently invested contributions to the Social Security fund may bring greater dividends, but those contributions would also face a greater risk. It would be like gambling. We should not gamble with the investments and the future of the citizens of this land.
- Daniel Inouye
Since Social Security was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 to ensure economic security for American workers, poverty among American seniors has dramatically declined.
- Steve Israel
The President and I agree that Social Security needs to be preserved so that we can ensure that all Americans receive the retirement benefits they've been promised. But we disagree as to how best to fix the system.
- Steve Israel
As you know, Social Security functions under the premise that today's workers will help finance benefits for retirees and that these workers will then be supported by the next generation of workers paying into the same system.
- Steve Israel
I believe that social security should be a universal retirement guarantee and not means tested.
- Steve Israel
You can be sure that I will always consider how changes to Social Security will impact people with disabilities when considering the various proposals offered for reform.
- Steve Israel
I believe that as a nation we must have a bipartisan discussion about how to best preserve and protect Social Security for our seniors and for future generations of Americans.
- Steve Israel
For these reasons, women tend to rely more heavily on Social Security in their retirement than do men.
- Steve Israel
America should meet its obligations in the form of Social Security, Medicare, our ability to pay our military, legally binding legislation that allows unemployment compensation, the judiciary, the federal court system, the federal prison system, all those kinds of things have to be paid for.
- Bill Johnson
It's not 2038 that Social Security is bankrupt. It's now.
- Gary Johnson
Race to race, the Republicans are putting up candidates that are quite far out of the mainstream in terms of should we have passed the Civil Rights Act or does Social Security need to exist.
- Tim Kaine
With or without a Social Security fix, Americans don't have enough assets to retire on. There has to be a much larger debate.
- Frank Keating
I am staunchly committed to ensuring the long-term solvency of Social Security and preserving full benefits for Americans who have spent their entire working lives contributing to this program.
- Sue Kelly
Social Security is the very foundation of retirement security for millions of Americans.
- Sue Kelly
But there is a need to explore ways we can preserve the promise of Social Security for future generations.
- Sue Kelly
All Americans have a sacred duty to guarantee Social Security benefits to our nation's senior citizens.
- Steve King
Most people understand life expectancy has changed since Social Security started in 1937 when folks lived to be 59 years old. Today, they live to be 77 years old.
- Jack Kingston
What I would ask the Democrat Party is to put your plan on the table, because most people agree with the facts, and the facts are that Social Security is running out of money.
- Jack Kingston
I wish that the Democrats would put some effort into Social Security reform, illegal immigration's reform, tax reform, or some of the other real issues that are out there.
- Jack Kingston
I welcome the Democrats' ideas on Social Security. I think it is very important to make a bipartisan reform.
- Jack Kingston
I think Social Security should be bipartisan and it should transcend the next election, and you should get the best ideas of the Democrats and of the Republicans, and move forward with the best.
- Jack Kingston
We need to take steps to strengthen and mend Social Security so that its promise of a secure retirement is just as real for seniors in the future as it is today.
- Herb Kohl
I've never denied my sexual orientation. I just don't make a point of it. It isn't what I do. Clearly, I'm known for the work I've done on trade and Social Security.
- Jim Kolbe
Social Security is a social insurance program - it is not designed to be the same thing as a 401(k).
- Paul Krugman
Wake up America!
The insurance companies took over health care!
Wake up America!
The pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing!
Wake up America!
The speculators took over Wall Street!
Wake up America!
They want your Social Security!
Wake up America!
Multinational corporations took over our trade policies!
Wake up America!
We went into Iraq for oil!
WAKE UP AMERICA!
- Dennis Kucinich
I agree that we must expand opportunities for retirement saving, but we must not undermine this worthy effort with a flawed privatization scheme that takes the 'security' out of Social Security.
- Mary Landrieu
Drawing on President Bush's reform plan, which would allow citizens to transfer part of their Social Security contributions into personal accounts, an alteration of the current system is needed to make necessary change.
- James A Leach
When I look at Social Security, I consider it the most important social program in the United States, arguably the most successful program in the world.
- James A Leach
While it is clear that we need to make some adjustments to protect Social Security for the long term, it is disingenuous to say that the trust fund is facing a crisis.
- Carl Levin
Social Security is something that we need to deal with, because people who are working today, who will retire in the future, people who are retired today, they have a right - and it's part of the compact that they can depend on their benefits. We should fix the long-term funding problem of Social Security because that's the right thing to do.
- Jacob Lew
I've never seen a constructive Social Security debate that started with one side digging in, in one place and another side digging into another.
- Jacob Lew
The reason to deal with Social Security is that it is a system where we have a tradition and history of making sure it is solidly funded for 75 years. At the moment, we look out and we see it is solidly funded until 2037.
- Jacob Lew
I think it's very important not to confuse the importance of dealing with Social Security in the long term with these short-term deficit reduction challenges. They're different issues.
- Jacob Lew
It is time for the general fund to pay the Social Security fund back.
- Jacob Lew
We must carefully consider card security solutions, such as adding photographs or machine-readable electronic strips, so to prevent further breaches of individual privacy that could result from changes to the design of Social Security Cards.
- Ron Lewis
Though Congress continues to explore possible solutions to ensure social security solvency, everyone must take personal responsibility to prepare their own retirement savings accordingly.
- Ron Lewis
Since Social Security faces a large gap between what it promises younger workers and what it can afford to pay them, private savings will likely need to play a larger role in retirement planning for younger workers.
- Ron Lewis
Without significant reform, the Social Security Administration will be legally and financially unable to pay full promised benefits within a generation.
- Ron Lewis
Social Security Number Cards by themselves were never intended to be personal identity documents because they cannot confirm that a person presenting a card is actually the person whose name appears on the card.
- Ron Lewis
Not too many years ago, both parties acknowledged that our entitlement commitments were a sword hanging over our heads. But when President George W. Bush tried to begin discussions on Social Security reform, Democrats ridiculed and demonized him and told seniors he was after their nest eggs.
- David Limbaugh
Will some reporter, or some Republican on the Sunday shows, please ask why tax cuts raid the non-existent Social Security Trust Fund but all the Democrats' new spending doesn't? Will someone please ask that?
- Rush Limbaugh
Social Security not only helps Americans enjoy a secure retirement, it has also kept millions of Americans out of poverty.
- Zoe Lofgren
Social security isn't a ponzi scheme. It's not bankrupting us. It's not an outrage. It is working.
- Rachel Maddow
Do I want Social Security to be there for my kids and my grandkids? Absolutely. Will I fight like a tiger to make sure that we protect Social Security? I absolutely will.
- Claire Mccaskill
You know, we've got to be responsible about our debt. We don't want the United States to ever be a dead beat, and not be able to pay its bills, either to our soldiers who are fighting or to Social Security recipients.
- Claire Mccaskill
We all know that Social Security is one of this country's greatest success stories in the 20th century.
- Mitch Mcconnell
There is a lot of room for improvement in Social Security. We owe our children the most financially sound system possible. They will have paid into it their entire working lives. They deserve to be protected by it. for our children and grandchildren.
- Mitch Mcconnell
We need to strengthen and save Social Security for today's workers. If we don't act now, this system, born out of the New Deal, will become a bad deal.
- Mitch Mcconnell
More young people believe they'll see a U.F.O. than that they'll see their own Social Security benefits.
- Mitch Mcconnell
The money that goes into Social Security is not the government's money. it's your money. You paid for it.
- Mitch Mcconnell
Cynically but accurately put, Americans oppose public intervention or regulation if it helps others, but favor it if it helps them - take social security, disaster relief, public works projects, for example.
- Jon Meacham
I am a huge admirer of Franklin Roosevelt's, and I believe social security has done untold good in alleviating the once-widespread issue of poverty among the elderly. FDR believed in the greatness and generosity of Americans - but he was also a cold-blooded politician.
- Jon Meacham
Why shouldn't future generations and young Americans have the choice to earn a higher rate of return? Why shouldn't they be able to own their own Social Security so that Congress can't spend it on other things?
- Ken Mehlman
I am emphatically against the privatization of Social Security. It is going to hurt millions of American women, American families and ultimately the whole country.
- Barbara Mikulski
When one gets old and they are sick, there are not many things they can count on but they should be able to count on Social Security. Our seniors' retirement should never rely on the bull of political promises or the bear of the market.
- Barbara Mikulski
Women would be disproportionately affected by the privatization of social security. It is one of the most important safety nets for American women in old age, or in times of disability, to insure financial income for their families.
- Barbara Mikulski
It is not secret here in Congress we have not had the discipline in many instances to keep our hands out of the cookie jar of Social Security. Now to stop this I propose that in the future that Congress cannot get its hands on the money in the first place.
- Jeff Miller
I believe that it is irresponsible, it is basically part of the crisis of leadership in D.C. to not look at Social Security and understand that there has got to be a solution posed. We've got to take a look at it and make sure that we create a solution so our seniors aren't left out in the cold.
- Joe Miller
Social Security, for example - I'm 43. I've paid into the system. You know what? That money has been stolen from me. I know that my parents who are on Social Security - they've got to continue to receive it. They're dependent on it. It is their primary source of income.
- Joe Miller
What we should be trying to do is to encourage people to establish private retirement accounts and help them take pressure off the Social Security system.
- Dennis Moore
Funding privatized accounts with Social Security dollars would not only make the program's long term problems worse, but many believe it represents a first step toward undermining the program's fundamental goals.
- Patty Murray
Almost half of all Latinas currently on Social Security rely exclusively on their benefit check in retirement.
- Grace Napolitano
Social Security has been effective for 70 years; prior predictions of its demise have been totally overstated.
- Grace Napolitano
The president's claim that Social Security is going broke is misleading at best. The sky is not falling, although there is no doubt that the system needs to be strengthened.
- Grace Napolitano
There is a need for Social Security reform to ensure its stability, and Congress must act.
- Grace Napolitano
Even without reforms, the Social Security fund will be able to meet 100 percent of its obligations until 2042.
- Grace Napolitano
Because Social Security is specifically designed to boost the retirement income of low earners with a progressive benefit formula, the program has played an enormous and necessary role in keeping Latinas out of poverty.
- Grace Napolitano
Because of my own experience with market fluctuation, I recognize the great risks one takes on investments. This converts the Social Security safety net into a risky proposition many cannot afford to take.
- Grace Napolitano
We must work to stabilize Social Security. We must not gamble with our nation's social insurance program, one of our most popular and effective federal programs that has remained dependable and stable for the past 70 years.
- Grace Napolitano
To allow all U.S. workers to put part of their earnings into private investment accounts would definitely erode the Social Security system and cause uncertainty for new investors.
- Grace Napolitano
We must level with the people and explain to them that Social Security will first face funding problems in 2042 that can be fixed now with changes that do not undermine and ultimately drain from the entire program.
- Grace Napolitano
Our Hispanic community needs to understand how important the Social Security system is for not only its retired citizens, but also its disabled workers.
- Grace Napolitano
Our political leaders must be honest and forthcoming with data that will allow citizens to use facts and figures to judge for themselves what state Social Security is in.
- Grace Napolitano
President Bush is manufacturing a crisis by suggesting that Social Security is in imminent danger. It is not.
- Richard Neal
Under the Bush plan, Social Security gets weaker, not stronger.
- Richard Neal
We can preserve Social Security benefits for generations of Americans without privatizing this important program.
- Richard Neal
Our fiat currency is under increasing stress with our large and growing trade deficits. We have a federal deficit that is calculated in the trillions when we take into account the net present value of the future Social Security and Medicaid obligations we are creating today.
- George Noory
Social Security faces a long-term actuarial deficit, yes.
- Peter Orszag
Let's means-test benefits - let's means-test Social Security and Medicare and make the rich pay more for these benefits.
- Rand Paul
Social Security has never failed to pay promised benefits, and Democrats will fight to make sure that Republicans do not turn a guaranteed benefit into a guaranteed gamble.
- Nancy Pelosi
For more than forty years, the United States Congress has shamelessly used payroll taxes intended for Social Security to fund big government spending.
- Mike Pence
It's time to stop the raid on the Social Security trust fund and start allowing Americans to invest their Social Security taxes in personal savings accounts.
- Mike Pence
By requiring that any surplus in Social Security taxes be returned to the American people in personal savings accounts, the plan ensures that Social Security taxes will be used for Social Security.
- Mike Pence
By comparison, George W. Bush was light and breezy and apparently forgot during one debate that Social Security was a federal program. In fact, his depth, and his unfamiliarity with the complexities of the issues, to say nothing of the simple declarative sentence, worked remarkably to his advantage.
- Charles P Pierce
You've got to stop and ask yourself once in a while...why some asinine politicians would quicker cut out social security than the space program...Go figure.
- Timothy Pina
Ultimately I think what people care about, particularly on an issue like Social Security, is not really what's right and what's left but what's right and what's wrong.
- John Podesta
If you can't even acknowledge that you have to fix Social Security, that's not a very good starting point.
- Rob Portman
Obama has demonstrated no desire to make tough choices. Americans demand a more efficient, effective government, but his budget calls for more taxes and more spending. It employs deceptive accounting gimmicks but does nothing to tackle long-term entitlement problems, nothing to save Medicare or fix Social Security.
- Reince Priebus
Spending when the math's not there and the numbers aren't there and if they look in the social security trust fund, it's filled with IOUs because the government's been pilfering it for years on end. We have to do something. We have to start having this discussion.
- Ben Quayle
And in terms of entitlement reforms, we have to save them from themselves, because if we don't reform social security and we don't reform Medicare, they're going to actually implode.
- Ben Quayle
I would hope that we could have this in an adult fashion and stop demagogueing the issue anytime you talk about any substantive reforms that will actually save social security and save Medicare and save the system from imploding on itself.
- Ben Quayle
If you got problems like unemployment, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and there's a guy that's always been there for you and for your family, then you say 'He's a nice guy. I don't know where he came from or how long he's been here, but Charlie Rangel's the man.' That's what I'm relying on.
- Charles Rangel
And it's also producing a growth in debt to the United States that will weight very heavily in a country that has to address issues like having more old people to be covered by Social Security or by pension in the future.
- Rodrigo Rato
The President has no real plan to address the fiscal challenges arising from the retirement of the baby boom generation, let alone a plan to fix Social Security.
- Jack Reed
The administration is manufacturing a crisis that does not exist in order to dismantle Social Security.
- Jack Reed
What I heard was that Bush is now positioned to have victory after victory. He'll have Social Security reform passed, that he'll have tax reform passed, that he'll have conservative judges on the courts.
- Pat Robertson
The remarks about my reaching the age of Social Security and coming to the end of the road, they jolted me. And that was good. Because I sure as hell had no intention of just sitting around for the rest of my life. So I'd whip out the paints and really go to it.
- Norman Rockwell
In fact, entitlement spending on programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security make up 54% of federal spending, and spending is projected to double within the next decade. Medicare is growing by 9% annually, and Medicaid by 8% annually.
- Jim Ryun
The American people I talk to don't spend every moment thinking, 'How can I tax my neighbor more than they're being taxed?' They say, 'How can I get a good job? How can my kids get good jobs? How can seniors have a confidence in their future when they know that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are bankrupt?'
- Mitt Romney
It has to have a payroll tax that's dedicated to Social Security. The Social Security tax has been very successful over the years in raising almost all of our elderly citizens out of poverty.
- James Roosevelt
Even the Congressional Budget Office and the Social Security trustees appointed by the president say that Social Security is financially sound, without any changes for the next 40 to 50 years.
- James Roosevelt
Social Security should have a self-sustaining portion that was funded by contributions from both employers and employees. That's what we know and have known for 70 successful years.
- James Roosevelt
Small changes done now would preserve Social Security at full benefit.
- James Roosevelt
But here's what I would tell people of my generation. I turn 40 this year. There isn't going to be a Social Security. There isn't going to be a Medicare when you retire. Forget about what your benefit is going to look like. There isn't going to be one if we don't make some reforms to save that program now.
- Marco Rubio
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