Defending Social Security

Social Security is the very foundation of retirement security for millions of Americans.

Social Security is the largest and most important anti-poverty measure ever implemented by the United States federal government.

Since being signed into law in 1935, the Social Security Act has prevented trillions of elderly Americans from falling into poverty during retirement. Last year, as many as 15 million Americans over the age of 65 were lifted out of poverty thanks to the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund (OASI).

No government program has touched as many lives or been as effective at reducing senior poverty as the Social Security program.

We must also recognize that wasteful spending by decades of career politicians in Washington has drained the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, and something must be done to make these programs sustainable for the future.

But in recent years, Washington politicians have increasingly used our Trust Fund money to finance their reckless government spending.

Despite a $2.7 TRILLION surplus in the Trust Funds, Social Security is facing imminent insolvency.

As of right now, the Social Security Trustees project benefit payments will exceed income collected in taxes until 2019. After 2019, reserves will make up the difference until they are exhausted in 2034.

If no changes are made to our current system, beginning in 2034, the Trustees estimate that Social Security benefits will need to be reduced by as much as 25% if beneficiaries are to continue receiving their payments as scheduled — for many retired Americans, this will mean a quarter of their total monthly income will be lost. For seniors already teetering on the financial edge, this makes the possibility of slipping into poverty incredibly real.

But rather than repair the Social Security system — by creating a REAL Trust Fund containing REAL assets for use only by beneficiaries — our elected officials continue to ignore this financial crisis, using our money to finance expensive government projects and leaving us with $2.7 trillion in promises to repay.

Promises that our government will not be able to keep by 2034.

The money that goes into Social Security is not the government’s money. It’s your money. You paid for it.

Our elected officials call Social Security a sacred contract — but while they tout the benefits and success of this contract, they’re going behind our backs to break it.

The original intent of Social Security was to provide seniors financial security so we can enjoy our retired years in comfort.

Social Security is the money you’ve earned and contributed to the Trust Fund over your lifetime — the money our government said would be there for us when we needed it most.

But thanks to the politicians’ “borrowing” and spending, seniors are facing the very thing this system set out to end for the last 80 years: senior poverty.

The Seniors Center is dedicated to finding a solution to the looming financial crisis threatening the secure retirement of millions of American seniors. No one who spent a lifetime faithfully contributing to the Trust Fund through years of hard work should ever struggle to make ends meet during retirement.

We’ve made it our mission to demand Congress secure and strengthen the Social Security benefits that seniors earned and depend on.