[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 154 (Monday, December 15, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6834-S6835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Social Security
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, it is no secret to anyone in America that
the middle class of our country today is struggling; that while
millions of American workers are now working longer hours for lower
wages than they did in some cases 30 or 40 years ago--we are looking at
a 40-year decline of the middle class--that almost all of the new
income being generated today is going to the top 1 percent. Tragically,
the United States has the most unequal distribution of income and
wealth of any major country on Earth.
But the issue is not just for the middle class right now or for
working families. The issue of the economic crisis we are in
significantly impacts senior citizens and children, the most vulnerable
people in this country. My hope always has been that as a great nation
we will not turn our backs on the children of America. But year after
year that is exactly what we do. We continue to have millions of
children living in poverty. In fact, we have the highest rate of
childhood poverty of any major country on Earth. Almost 20 percent of
our kids live in poverty. We have about one out of four children in
America who gets their nutrition from the food stamp program.
I worry very much about the future of this country if we cannot stand
with the children of America; if we cannot make sure that working
parents all over this country have high quality, affordable childcare.
That is certainly not the case right now, despite the fact that
virtually all psychologists recognize that the most important years of
a human being's life are zero to four. But our childcare system is a
disaster.
It is not only the children we have turned our backs on. Increasingly
we are turning our backs on senior citizens as well. It has distressed
me for a number of years to be hearing many of my Republican friends
and some Democrats talking about the need to cut Social Security--to
cut Social Security. There are various schemes out there--some of them
have to do with the so-called chained CPI--which would reformulate how
we determine cost-of-living adjustments for seniors. This means, in
fact, over a period of years significant reductions in what seniors and
disabled veterans would get.
We have worked, I have worked, in opposition to that concept for
years. I think we have beaten it back, but I have no doubt that it will
surface again. There are folks who want to cut Social Security, and, in
my view, we have to do everything we can not only to defeat that
proposal but we have to begin talking about how we expand Social
Security benefits. Because today the kind of benefits that millions of
seniors get are simply not adequate for them in terms of giving them
the income they need to purchase the medicine they require, the food
they need, the fuel to heat their homes in the wintertime, and other
basic necessities.
In terms of Social Security, let me be very clear. Despite what folks
on TV may be saying, and some politicians may be saying, Social
Security is not going broke. Let me repeat: Social Security is not
going broke. Today Social Security has a surplus in the trust fund of
$2.76 trillion--a surplus of $2.76 trillion--and can pay out benefits
to every eligible American for the next 19 years, to the year 2033. So
anyone who comes forward and says Social Security is
[[Page S6835]]
going broke, that is just factually not true. Social Security can pay
out every benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 19
years.
We also hear the argument: Well, we have a large deficit, and Social
Security is one of the causes of our deficit and our national debt.
That is absolutely inaccurate. Social Security has not contributed one
nickel to our deficit or our national debt, because Social Security, as
every worker in America knows, is independently funded through payroll
tax contributions from workers and employers--6.2 percent from each--
and it does not receive funding from the Federal Treasury.
So, a, Social Security is not going broke; and, b, it is not
contributing to the deficit. But I will say this about Social Security.
In an incredibly volatile economy, the stock market goes up, the stock
market goes down. Social Security, from its inception 79 years ago,
through good economic times and bad economic times, has paid out every
nickel owed to every eligible beneficiary with minimal administrative
cost.
Social Security is not an investment program. You can invest money on
Wall Street, and sometimes you do well. You can invest money on Wall
Street, and sometimes you lose your shirt. Social Security is a social
insurance program. It has never failed 1 American in 79 years. That is
a pretty good record.
But even with Social Security being strong and solvent for the next
19 years, we have to recognize we do have a retirement crisis in
America today. I fear very much that the appropriations bill just
passed the other day, which will allow pensions for millions of workers
to be cut, is only going to exacerbate that problem. Today in America
only one in five workers has a traditional defined benefit that
guarantees income in retirement.
Amazingly enough, when we talk about anxiety among the American
people, stress among the American people, and why people are angry, why
they are fearful, over half of all Americans have less than $10,000 in
savings. Stop and think about that. If you have less than $10,000 in
savings, an automobile accident or needing a new car can wipe you out;
an illness can wipe you out; a divorce can wipe you out. So we have
millions and millions of Americans sitting there wondering how they are
going to retire with dignity when they have $5,000, $8,000 or less in
savings.
Here is the importance of Social Security: Two-thirds of senior
citizens today depend upon Social Security for more than half of their
income; one-third of all seniors depend upon Social Security for at
least 90 percent of their income.
So when we talk about cutting Social Security, understand that a
third of seniors depend upon Social Security for at least 90 percent of
their income. This is not extra money; this is not fun money; this is
life-and-death money. This is money that people need to buy medicine,
food, and to keep their homes warm in the wintertime.
I wish I could say otherwise, but the truth is that the percentage of
seniors living in poverty in America is going up. In 2011, the official
senior poverty rate was 8.7 percent. Last year the official senior
poverty rate was 9.5 percent. That is a pretty significant increase in
senior poverty.
But if we look at the Census Bureau's more comprehensive measure of
poverty, which takes a careful look at the out-of-pocket medical costs
for seniors, the poverty rate for seniors is even worse. According to
this supplemental poverty measure from the Census Bureau, the real
senior poverty rate in America is actually 14.6 percent. What that
means is that one out of seven seniors living in America last year
could not afford to meet their most basic needs.
The average Social Security benefit today is just $14,000 a year. As
someone who will be the next ranking member of the Budget Committee, I
intend to do everything I can not only to oppose vigorously any efforts
to cut Social Security, I am going to do everything I can to expand
Social Security benefits.
In fact, the best way to expand Social Security is to ask the
wealthiest people in our country to pay more into the system by
scrapping the cap on income that is subject to the Social Security
payroll tax. As the Presiding Officer knows, right now a billionaire
pays the same amount into Social Security as someone who makes $117,000
a year. So if there is a multimillionaire here--somebody who is making
$50 million--and somebody who is making $117,000, they both contribute
the same amount into the Social Security trust fund. This is
regressive. This is unfair. This is absurd. If we lifted this cap and
applied the Social Security payroll tax to income above $250,000--not
$117,000, but $250,000 a year, we could not only extend the solvency of
Social Security for decades to come--which is what we want to do--but
we could also provide the resources necessary to expand Social Security
benefits. That is exactly what we should be doing, and that in fact is
what the American people want us to do.
In August 2014, a poll by Lake Research Partners asked likely voters
if they support the idea of:
. . . increasing Social Security benefits and paying for
that increase by having wealthy Americans pay the same rate
into Social Security as everybody else.
Interestingly, the poll found that 90 percent of Democratic voters
said they support the idea, and 75 percent strongly support that idea
of lifting the cap; 73 percent of Independent voters support that idea,
55 percent strongly support it; 73 percent of Republican voters support
that idea, 47 percent strongly support it.
So there is for that idea enormously strong support across the
political spectrum, Democrats, Independents, Republicans.
Sadly, despite this overwhelming support for expanding Social
Security, the CEOs at the Business Roundtable--the organization
representing the largest corporations in America--came out with a plan
last year which does exactly what the American people do not want to
do. The American people want to expand Social Security and the Business
Roundtable came out with a plan that would increase the Social Security
retirement age from 67 to 70 and severely cut the COLA of senior
citizens and disabled veterans.
The Congress and the Senate here have got to make a very fundamental
decision, and that is: Do we listen to the American people who are
hurting today--the seniors who have worked their whole lives but who
cannot get by in what in many cases are meager and inadequate Social
Security benefits--do we listen to them? Do we stand up for and with
the people who helped build this country--who worked the farms, who
worked in our factories, who served us in our Armed Forces? Do we stand
with them and expand Social Security, or do we listen to those on Wall
Street and corporate America who want to cut Social Security benefits
and in some cases want to privatize Social Security?
This is a huge issue for tens of millions of Americans. I intend to
do everything I can not only to resist cuts to Social Security but to
do everything we can to expand Social Security benefits for those
seniors and disabled vets who desperately need that expansion.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.