Social Security is the healthiest part of our retirement security system, and protecting and improving Social Security benefits is the best solution. This was the consensus of working families’ advocates and members of Congress at a conference held yesterday by Social Security Works and a coalition of organizations. Among the key proposals suggested by representatives and senators were increasing the monthly Social Security benefits and eliminating the cap on the amount of income people pay Social Security taxes on (currently set at $113,700).
Here are 10 quotes on Social Security from members of Congress who spoke yesterday (in alphabetical order):
1. "We are not going to balance the budget on the backs of seniors."—Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-I2. "Chained CPI is a benefit cut for seniors. It gets worse over time."—Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.)
3. "We are not going to trade Social Security and Medicare for the lifting of sequestration."—DeLauro
4. "We cannot allow our seniors to be casualties of this budget battle."—Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.)
5. "If this program did not exist today, we'd have to create it."—Deutch
6. "If the system needs to be fixed, let's fix it. If it ain't broke, don't break it."—Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.)
7. "Let's increase Social Security payments, and let’s do it in a way that helps people at the bottom more than those at the top."—Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
8. "Chained CPI is just bad."—Harkin
9. "Somebody who is making a million dollars a year should be paying more into the Social Security Trust Fund than someone who is making $113,000."—Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
10. "We understand that Social Security is family insurance; it's family security."—Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii)
Watch the entire conference in the video below or learn more at SocialSecurityWorks.org.
Kenneth Quinnell
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