[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 230 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 230

  Expressing the sense of the Senate that any agreement to reduce the 
 budget deficit should not include cuts to Social Security benefits or 
                           Medicare benefits.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 11, 2011

Mr. Whitehouse (for himself, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Brown of 
Ohio, Mr. Merkley, and Mr. Franken) submitted the following resolution; 
             which was referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing the sense of the Senate that any agreement to reduce the 
 budget deficit should not include cuts to Social Security benefits or 
                           Medicare benefits.

Whereas over 34,000,000 retired workers currently receive Social Security 
        benefits in amounts that average a modest $14,100 a year;
Whereas, in 2008, 23 percent of retired workers receiving Social Security 
        benefits depended on those benefits for all or almost all of their 
        income;
Whereas according to AARP, Social Security benefits kept 36 percent of seniors 
        out of poverty in 2008;
Whereas reducing Social Security benefits would cause many seniors to have to 
        choose between food, drugs, rent, and heat;
Whereas 95 percent of seniors in the United States, who numbered almost 
        37,000,000 in 2008, got their health care coverage through the Medicare 
        program;
Whereas without Medicare benefits, seniors, many of whom live off of Social 
        Security benefits, would have to turn to the costly and uncertain 
        private market for health care coverage;
Whereas the Social Security program and the Medicare program are extremely 
        successful social insurance programs that permit seniors in America to 
        retire with dignity and security after a lifetime of hard work; and
Whereas the Social Security program and the Medicare program help relieve young 
        American families from worry about their own futures, allowing freedom 
        of opportunity in America: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that any agreement to 
reduce the budget deficit should not include cuts to Social Security 
benefits or Medicare benefits.
                                 <all>