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Sheldon Whitehouse on Social Security Democratic Jr Senator, previously attorney general

Protect and defend Social Security

Life without Social Security would be unimaginably worse

Hinckley countered, saying Democrats have no plan to save Social Security. "Ask yourself, is that fair, to pay into a pension system managed by the government and then get nothing," said Hinckley, who proposed hiring actuaries to bring the system in line. "The problem with Social Security, it's managed by career politicians and not professionals."

Don’t put Soc. Sec. benefits at risk

A: Social Security has been the foundation of our country’s promise that no American will have to face an impoverished retirement. The Republican leadership in Washington is committed to undermining this promise through a risky scheme to put Social Security funds in the stock market as part of new private accounts. We should never again put seniors’ livelihoods at risk from a catastrophic stock market crash. I am opposed to President Bush’s proposal to cut Social Security benefits to middle-income workers through progressive indexing, and am disappointed that Senator Chafee has expressed support for this plan.

Pro-privatization crowd wants to cut benefits

Lift limit on withholding from $90,000 to $120,000

Voted NO on establishing reserve funds & pre-funding for Social Security.

1. require that the Federal Old Age and Survivors Trust Fund be used only to finance retirement income of future beneficiaries;
2. ensure that there is no change to benefits for individuals born before January 1, 1951
3. provide participants with the benefits of savings and investment while permitting the pre-funding of at least some portion of future benefits; and
4. ensure that the funds made available to finance such legislation do not exceed the amounts estimated to be actuarially available.

Proponents recommend voting YES because:

Perhaps the worst example of wasteful spending is when we take the taxes people pay for Social Security and, instead of saving them, we spend them on other things. Even worse than spending Social Security on other things is we do not count it as debt when we talk about the deficit every year. So using the Social Security money is actually a way to hide even more wasteful spending without counting it as debt. This Amendment would change that.

Opponents recommend voting NO because:

This amendment has a fatal flaw. It leaves the door open for private Social Security accounts by providing participants with the option of "pre-funding of at least some portion of future benefits."

This body has already closed the door on the President's ill-conceived plan for private Social Security accounts. The opposition to privatization is well-known:
• Privatizing Social Security does nothing to extend the solvency of the program.
• Transition costs would put our Nation in greater debt by as much as $4.9 trillion.
• Creating private accounts would mean benefit cuts for retirees, by as much as 40%.
• Half of all American workers today have no pension plan from their employers. It is critical that we protect this safety net.

Reject privatization; don't raise the retirement age.

Some 200 Democratic House and Senate candidates have signed on to a pledge rejecting any effort to privatize or scale back Social Security benefits or raise the retirement age. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee sponsored this pledge among Congressional candidates.

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