[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 12 (Tuesday, February 4, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S973]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        COSPONSORSHIP OF THE OLDER AMERICANS FREEDOM TO WORK ACT

 Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise today in cosponsorship of 
Senate bill S. 202, the Older Americans Freedom to Work Act. This 
important legislation would remove existing penalties on outside income 
earned by Social Security beneficiaries who have reached retirement 
age.
  Currently, Mr. President, persons between the ages of 65 and 69 face 
a penalty of $1 in reduced benefits for every $3 in earnings above 
$13,500 per year. This penalty is unfair because it singles out older 
Americans for double taxation. That is, this income already is subject 
to normal taxation, and currently is reduced again through the earnings 
penalty.
  The penalty also is unwise, Mr. President, because it discourages 
trained and experienced people from participating in the labor force. 
When the current earned income limit was devised back in the 1930's, it 
was thought that encouraging older Americans to leave the labor force 
was a good idea. But times have changed. Where during the Great 
Depression there were too many workers and too few jobs, we face, in 
the next several decades, a worsening labor shortage. As the baby boom 
generation reaches retirement age between 2000 and 2010, there will be 
fewer younger workers to take the place of those who retire. We should 
be encouraging older Americans to stay in the labor force as long as 
they can safely continue to make a contribution there. In this way 
older people can better see to their financial needs, senior citizens 
will remain more active and thus happier and healthier, and our Nation 
will continue to benefit from these people's skills and wisdom.
  For the sake of our older Americans, and for the sake of continuing 
economic prosperity for all Americans, I urge my colleagues to support 
this legislation.

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