Ron DeSantis on Social Security

	Ron DeSantis on Social Security

A promise made will be a promise kept

Q: You have said that you're not going to "mess with Social Security." Does that mean you have committed to never raising the retirement age and never cutting benefits?

DESANTIS: So, all seniors out there, a promise has been made to you. You've paid into this. Every single paycheck that you've had your entire life they've taken money out of, and that promise needs to be fulfilled. So, that will happen when I'm president. Promise made, promise kept. On the retirement age, there used to be people would say, "well, life expectancy is going up. Shouldn't it mirror that?" Well, the problem now in the last five years is life expectancy is going down. So, I don't see how you can raise the retirement age when our life expectancy is collapsing in this country. That's a huge problem in and of itself. I'll work with both sides of the aisle. We'll work on something for the long-term strengthening, but I am not going to mess with seniors' benefits.

Source: CNN 2024 pre-Iowa caucus one-on-one debate , Jan 10, 2024

Can't raise retirement age when life expectancy declining

Q: Removing current seniors from the equation, are you committing to never raising the retirement age?

DESANTIS: I would never raise the retirement age in the face of a declining life expectancy. That would be really bad. That hurts blue collar folks. You get taxed your entire life; life expectancy is down. You may not even be recouping very many benefits.

HALEY: Three years in a row, he voted to raise life expectancy to 70 years old, three years in a row. Go to DeSantisLies.com and you'll see it. So, now suddenly he's going to tell you because he's running for president and he's not going to do it, you can't trust him.

DeSantisLies.com: "DeSantis wanted to raise the retirement age to 70 when he was in Congress, voting to do so in 2013, 2014, and 2015. In 2012, Ron DeSantis told a local Florida newspaper that Social Security was unsustainable and was never intended for people to be retiring at '65 or 67' if they are going to live into their eighties." Source: CNN 2024 pre-Iowa caucus one-on-one debate , Jan 10, 2024

Social Security is not an entitlement; we all pay in

DESANTIS: Governor Haley has said Social Security is an entitlement, but it's not an entitlement. You're paying into it. It's not a welfare program. You're being taxed for this your whole life. And so to expect to have benefits on the backend, I don't think that that's too much.

The other thing I'd point out is Social Security for decades ran massive surpluses. What happened to those surpluses? The Congress spent the surpluses.

Source: CNN 2024 pre-Iowa caucus one-on-one debate , Jan 10, 2024

Rated 0% by ARA, indicating a pro-privatization stance.

DeSantis scores 0% Alliance for Retired Americans

Scoring system for 2014: Ranges from 0% (supports privatization and other market-based reforms) to 100% (supports keeping federal control over Trust Fund and Social Security system).

About ARA (from their website, www.RetiredAmericans.org):

The Alliance for Retired Americans is a nationwide organization, founded in May 2001, with now over 4.2 million members working together to make their voices heard in the laws, policies, politics, and institutions that shape our lives. The mission of the Alliance for Retired Americans is to ensure social and economic justice and full civil rights for all citizens so that they may enjoy lives of dignity, personal and family fulfillment and security.

Alliance members visit the polls in record numbers. We use the power of our membership and our Congressional Voting Record to educate and mobilize seniors to elect leaders committed to improving the lives of retirees and older Americans.
We are effectively warding off cuts to our most important social programs like Social Security and Medicare. Our Human Chain Against the Chained CPI events in the summer of 2013 took place in more than 50 cities and mobilized support for stopping this cut to earned Social Security benefits.
We blocked the privatization of Social Security with our Social Security `Truth Truck` delivering 2.1 million petitions to Members of Congress and other tactics.
The Alliance makes its voice heard on the issues that matter not just to current retirees, but to all Americans who hope to retire one day. We were a leading voice in recent debates considering changes to Medicare, like replacing guaranteed benefits with a voucher system, and remain so in 2014.

Source: ARA lifetime rating on incumbents of 113th Congress 14_ARA on Jan 1, 2013

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