Senator Bernie Sanders debates Neil Cavuto about Social Security [View All]

[Charleston Chew]

Run time: 05:59 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c19q0LxWMns   Posted on YouTube: October 01, 2010 By YouTube Member: MOXNEWSd0tCOM Views on YouTube: 642   Posted on DU: April 07, 2011 By DU Member: Charleston Chew Views on DU: 462

 
Sanders Op-Ed: A way to make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years
By Sen. Bernie Sanders

August 17, 2010

Social Security just turned 75, and all across the country, people and senior organizations are celebrating this enormous achievement. Before President Franklin Roosevelt signed the law on August 14, 1935, about half of the senior citizens in America lived in poverty. That began to change on January 31, 1940, when the first monthly retirement check, for $22.54, was issued to retired legal secretary Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vt.

Today, more than 52 million Americans, including over 124,000 Vermonters, receive benefits. For three quarters of a century, Social Security has been a great success doing exactly what it was designed to do. During that entire period not one American who has been eligible for Social Security has failed to receive benefits they were entitled to receive. That’s a pretty good record. Today, Social Security not only provides retirement benefits to seniors, it provides support for the disabled and widows and orphans.

Sadly, despite its enormously successful record, Social Security has in recent years become a political football. For ideological reasons there are those in Congress who believe that government should not be involved in providing benefits to seniors or the disabled. Rather, they believe in the privatization of Social Security and that workers should, if they want, invest in retirement programs administered by Wall Street and the private sector. Others are arguing that “Social Security is going bankrupt” and, at the very least, benefits should be reduced and the retirement age should be raised to 70.

http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=c05942ad-8fcf-49ed-9c13-65d21b0840f4