State of Florida Archives: on Social Security

Al Lawson: Strengthen & secure Social Security

Brian Mast: Update system to protect future generations

Unfortunately, Social Security has become another casualty of our broken system, affecting those Americans who need it most. My generation & future generations of workers, past promises may not be feasible. While I plan to uphold the Government's promises to current retirees and those planning to retire, I also recognize that an update to our Social Security system is strongly needed in order to protect all generations of American workers.

I will be a leading voice for addressing the critical issue of Social Security. I also believe that every good leader must also listen, as we exchange ideas about updating Social Security to benefit my constituents and all Americans. I will work with all of my fellow members of Congress to ensure that Social Security continues to be safeguarded.

Darren Soto: Strengthen and expand Social Security; don't cut it

Matt Gaetz: Keep our promises but pass reforms for long-term solvency

Val Demings: Protect Medicare and Social Security for our seniors

Carlos Lopez-Cantera: Preserve and protect Social Security and Medicare

We know that Medicare and Social Security cannot continue in their current form. People of good faith know the question is how, not if, we reform these programs. We must make both programs solvent over the long term. We can't keep kicking the can down the road, hoping the next Congress or the next generation will have the political courage we lack.

David Jolly: FactCheck: Discuss private accounts & other options too

Which option Jolly favored wasn't so clear, beyond setting some kind of benefit guarantee for people who have already qualified for Social Security or are currently receiving payments. He hasn't said whether private accounts were at the top of his list of potential fixes, only that they should be considered. Democrats were attempting to make it sound like he is 100% behind the idea; we rate that statement `Mostly False.`

Jolly said several times on the campaign trail that the Supreme Court found that `Social Security is not guaranteed.` A 1960 case did indeed say that; Congress can change the rules. We rate his statement `True.`

Carlos Curbelo: Trust Fund runs out in 2021; Medicare runs out in 2026

Gwen Graham: I refuse to support any budget with plans like privatization

It isn't just our seniors who expect America to keep the promises we've made through Medicare and Social Security; seniors' families depend on Medicare and Social Security to keep their parents and loved ones healthy and secure, as well.

Ted Yoho: Option of 100% privatization

A: Yes. I believe that people should have the option of 100% privatization when it comes to social security.

Jeff Greene: Maintain current retirement age

Charlie Crist: Reducing COLA is unfair to seniors living on fixed income

Asked what he would do, Crist said that raising the age "really flies in the face of an awful lot of my fellow Floridians" and said he would root out waste and fraud instead. The Crist campaign issued a post-debate statement: "Governor Crist believes that Speaker Rubio's support of raising the retirement age and reducing Social Security cost of living adjustments is cruel, unusual and unfair to seniors living on a fixed income," it read. "While entitlement reform needs to be addressed, the speaker's position on this issue demonstrates, yet again, that he does not have Floridians' best interests in mind. This issue will surely be one of many Florida voters will hear more about throughout the rest of this campaign."

Marco Rubio: Raise retirement age for those now under 55

Asked what he would do, Crist said that raising the age "really flies in the face of an awful lot of my fellow Floridians" and said he would root out waste and fraud instead.

Charlie Crist: Focus on waste & fraud, not retirement age & COLA

Crist replied that he opposes either a retirement age increase or changes to annual COLAs. Instead, he would focus on attacking "waste and fraud" in the system. As a general rule, when a politician mentions "waste, fraud, and abuse" it should be interpreted the same as if the candidate wore a sign saying "I'm not serious." That's not to say that we don't have problems with fraud, but that the real problem is simply that the government spends too much. This is particularly so in the case of Social Security, which is one of the most efficient federal government programs.

Marco Rubio: Tough choices include raising retirement age & reducing COLA

Rubio pointed out the problems facing the Social Security program and stated that we're going to have to look at the tough choices, which include raising the retirement age for younger Americans, possibly reducing Cost of Living Adjustments, and other changes to benefits. If you don't want to raise taxes--which both Crist and Rubio say they oppose--then these are pretty much your only options.

Crist replied that he opposes either a retirement age increase or changes to annual COLAs. Instead, he would focus on attacking "waste and fraud" in the system.

Rubio was willing to be upfront about the hard choices awaiting us on Social Security. This may be due to the dawning on Americans that the clock is truly ticking in terms of getting our fiscal house in order. Rubio brought up the problem of Greece's debt crisis & related it to what America may be looking at in the future.

Charlie Crist: Don't raise retirement age; don't adjust COLA

RUBIO: I think all of that has to be on the table, including the way we index increases in cost of living. All of these issues have to be on the table [including raising the retirement age]. They are options that I would be open to.

Q: Gov. Crist, we looked all over your campaign Web site. Frankly, we couldn't find a word about Social Security reform.

CRIST: Well, I think it's important that we understand Social Security must be saved. It must be protected. The idea of having a higher age for people to be able to be eligible for Social Security really flies in the face of an awful lot of my fellow Floridians and it's something that I would not advocate. I think we need t take the fraud out of Social Security, the waste, in Medicare as well.

Q: You're saying that even for people under the age of 55 you would not raise the retirement age or you wouldn't change the cost-of-living adjustment?

CRIST: No, I would not.

Marco Rubio: Hard choices for people under 40, to avoid runaway growth

RUBIO: The freeze is not enough. We can freeze the non-military discretionary spending and it's a good step forward. But ultimately, tackling the issue of the federal debt is going to require significant entitlement reforms. That means programs like Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid have to be reformed if we hope to save them so that they exist for my generation. That means we are going to call upon people my age--I turn 39 in May--and people that are far from retirement to make difficult but important and necessary choices to ensure that the runaway growth in entitlement programs and federal spending does not diminish our future or bankrupt America.

Marco Rubio: Keep raising the retirement age on the table

RUBIO: Well, first of all, I think a great starting point for this conversation is the Ryan roadmap.

Q: This is Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

RUBIO: Correct. I think it's a great starting point. He does include individual accounts as part of his plan.

Q: I'm asking you about your plan.

RUBIO: On the individual accounts come and gone, that debate happened a few years ago and every year that goes by, it becomes more difficult to accomplish that. But certainly, I think if you're 55 years of age or older, this is off the table.

Q: So, would you raise the retirement age?

RUBIO: I think that has to be on the table. That's got to be part of the solution, the retirement age gradually increases for people of my generation.

Marco Rubio: Keep cost-of-living adjustment on the table

RUBIO: I think all of that has to be on the table, including the way we index increases in cost of living. All of these issues have to be on the table [including raising the retirement age]. They are options that I would be open to.

Q: Gov. Crist, we looked all over your campaign Web site. Frankly, we couldn't find a word about Social Security reform.

CRIST: Well, I think it's important that we understand Social Security must be saved. It must be protected. The idea of having a higher age for people to be able to be eligible for Social Security really flies in the face of an awful lot of my fellow Floridians and it's something that I would not advocate. I think we need t take the fraud out of Social Security, the waste, in Medicare as well.

Q: You're saying that even for people under the age of 55 you would not raise the retirement age or you wouldn't change the cost-of-living adjustment?

CRIST: No, I would not.

Jeb Bush: Privatization became administration's fundamental philosophy

The governor was extraordinarily successful in achieving his legislative goals regarding privatization: Florida hired private sector companies to administer programs that other states had also privatized: managing state prisons, collecting fees on the state's tollways, and cleaning state buildings. But Bush expanded privatization into uncharted territory and contracted out state personnel services (payroll, benefits, training, recruitment, etc.), the management of Medicaid billing.

Like other officials throughout the nation, Bush argued that he was privatizing Florida state government in order to bring about cost savings and efficiency. However, the speed and manner in which he initiated and carried out his plans led some to suggest that political philosophy was the driving force.

Jeb Bush: Social service benefits via private & faith-based companies

The larger issue regarding the faith-based initiative was that virtually no effort was made to evaluate the activities of the organizations that received public money or to compare their costs and quality of service with those of other service providers. Analysis was impossible and as a consequence the state knows very little about the relative advantages and disadvantages of using faith-based organizations to deliver public services.

Mike Huckabee: Will try to fix Social Security with FairTax

Mitt Romney: Will try to fix Social Security without raising taxes

A: I’m not going to raise taxes. Not only are you taking money away from their pocketbooks, you’re also slowing down the economy. You slow down the economy, more people lose work. More people lose work, of course, you’re having a lot of folks that really have their lives turned upside down. So, raising taxes is just something you don’t want to do. We’re going to have to sit down with the Democrats and say, let’s have a compromise on these three elements that could get us to bring Social Security into economic balance. You can have personal accounts where people can invest in something that does better than government bonds--with some portion of their Social Security. We’re going to have the initial benefit calculations for wealthier Americans calculated based on the Consumer Price Index rather than the wage index. That saves almost two-thirds of the shortfall. You can change the retirement age. You can push it out a little bit.

Ron Paul: Abolish Social Security, but not overnight

A: Yes, but not overnight. As a matter of fact, my program’s the only one that is going to be able to take care of the elderly. I’d like to get the young people out of it, just the younger generation, because there’s no money there, and they’re going to have to pay 50 years and they’re not going to get anything. I’d take care of all the elderly, all those who are dependent, but I would save the money from this wild spending overseas.

Ron Paul: Let people get out of Social Security; it’s a failure

Duncan Hunter: Address entitlement programs with trade policy

A: One thing we need with this smaller generation that’s coming up, that’s going to have to carry these massive loads, is bigger paychecks. You take a $75,000-a-year job, and you move it to China, and that guy gets a $20,000-a-year job, the amount of money that he or she contributes to Medicare and Social Security falls off the cliff. Now, we’ve lost over 3 million high-paying manufacturing jobs in the last 5 years because we haven’t insisted on a level playing field with out competitors.

Q: Congressman, do you really think we can solve the Social Security and Medicare entitlement programs with trade policy?

A: Let me give you one statistic. We have a $161 billion deficit this year. We have an $800 billion trade deficit. And that is closely linked with the ability to take care of our seniors, to take care of Medicare, and to pay Social Security, absolutely.

Fred Thompson: Present mandatory spending cycle is unsustainable

A: There’s no reason to run for the presidency if you can’t tell the truth. The fact of the matter is we’re bankrupting the next generation. We’re spending the money of our grandkids & those yet to be born. They don’t have a seat at the table. Our present mandatory spending cycle leaves us in an unsustainable position. Can you imagine something that’s unsustainable and threatens our economy for our grandchildren & those yet to be born not being discussed more on the campaign trail? [We can] avoid future generational warfare, where we have to fight over a lot higher taxes or big benefit cuts, if we do some responsible things now. And the indexing of benefits in the future, from wages to prices, is one way to do that. Current retirees or for those near retirement wouldn’t be affected. Those retiring in the future would get the same benefits in real dollars as those retiring now, but not more.

John McCain: We need personal savings accounts

A: Look, what Americans need is some straight talk. Every man, woman and child in America needs to know it’s going broke, and we’ve got to do the hard things. We’ve got to fix it for the future generations of Americans. Don’t we owe that to young Americans today? I say we do. It’s got to be bipartisan. And you have to go to the American people and say we won’t raise your taxes. We need personal savings accounts, but we got to fix this system.

Mike Huckabee: Personalization of retirement funds, not privatization

A: The president had the right idea, but he used the wrong word. When he used the word privatization, it scared the daylights out of a lot of people.

Q: Well, he didn’t. He used the word private accounts.

A: Well, but it scared the daylights out of people because they’re thinking Enron and WorldCom, and that that’s where their money would go. The right word is personalization. Empower individuals to have a greater say over their money. And that’s what it is. Keep the government from robbing the trust funds, which is something that, if it was done in the private sector, would get a guy in jail. One thing, when people reach retirement age, if they really have enough retirement benefits, they don’t need Social Security for the long term, give them the option of one-time buyout, or the opportunity to purchase an annuity, with their funds, tax-free, that frees up the long-term obligation of the government.

Mitt Romney: Private accounts work better than extending retirement age

1. The one Democrats want: raise taxes. It’s the wrong way to go.
2. The president said let’s have private accounts and take that surplus money that’s being gathered now in Social Security and put that into private accounts. That works.
3. Other people said, well, extend the retirement age. That mathematically works. It’s not as attractive.
4. And the last is to index the Social Security benefits, the first benefit, to something other than wages, which is what it has always been. But, in my view, that’s the wrong way to go, other than for higher-income Americans. Let’s consider indexing based on prices rather than wages.

Ron Paul: Allow young people to get out of the system

A: It’s a mess. And it proves that the government is not very good at central economic planning, even for retirement. The money was taken from the people with good intention. We should do our best to return it to those that have taken it. But we need to allow the young people to just flat out get out of the system. Because, if you have the government managing these accounts, it’s not going to work.

Rudy Giuliani: Get a consensus behind private accounts

Tom Tancredo: Give people the ability to control their own money

A: We have to structurally change both Social Security and Medicare. All the stuff that we talk about in terms of discretionary spending that we can cut, ridiculous. It won’t matter in the total scheme of things. You’ve got to go after those and structurally change them. I agree entirely with the idea of doing it by giving people the ability to control their own money, moving it from--just exactly like they would in their 401(k).

Tim Mahoney: Preserve Social Security

Preserve Senior Citizens American Dream
• Preserve Social Security
• Ensure Corporations protect their pension plans
• Have a competitive Prescription Drug plan that meets the needs of seniors, not drug manufacturers
• Protect seniors from skyrocketing homeowners, health, and property tax rates

Betty Castor: Oppose privatizing Social Security and retirement age change

CASTOR: I’m all for people investing for their retirement, but the proposal to take money out of the Social Security system and put it into the stock market would endanger Social Security because investment choices would be severely limited by the federal government. Switching to a privatized system would cost money we simply do not have, given the deficit run up over the past four years. I am adamantly against spending Social Security money on other items. I oppose privatizing Social Security, raising the retirement age or cutting benefits.

MARTINEZ: Social Security is a solemn promise that must be kept and I urge Congress to preserve that sacred trust. We must not change the rules for middl -aged workers and seniors. Social Security must improve service with new business processes and use technology to become more efficient. We must work together to develop a system that will be solvent in the future. Finally, I do not support raising taxe

Mel Martinez: Social Security is a sacred promise but plan future solvency

CASTOR: I’m all for people investing for their retirement, but the proposal to take money out of the Social Security system and put it into the stock market would endanger Social Security because investment choices would be severely limited by the federal government. Switching to a privatized system would cost money we simply do not have, given the deficit run up over the past four years. I am adamantly against spending Social Security money on other items. I oppose privatizing Social Security, raising the retirement age or cutting benefits.

MARTINEZ: Social Security is a solemn promise that must be kept and I urge Congress to preserve that sacred trust. We must not change the rules for middl -aged workers and seniors. Social Security must improve service with new business processes and use technology to become more efficient. We must work together to develop a system that will be solvent in the future. Finally, I do not support raising taxe

Betty Castor: Privatizing Social Security will reduce benefits

Betty Castor: Oppose investing Social Security in the stock market

Mel Martinez: Allow people to invest in a private account

Al Gore: Won’t break Social Security promises to seniors

Andy Martin: Allow individual investment of payroll tax

Martin indicates support of the following principles regarding Social Security.
• Allow workers to invest a portion of their payroll tax in private accounts which they manage themselves.
• Allow workers to invest a portion of their payroll tax in private accounts managed by private firms contracted by the government.
• Invest a portion of Social Security's assets collectively in stocks and bonds instead of U.S. Treasury securities.
• Limit Social Security benefits based on recipients' other income and assets.
• Support a lock box measure, limiting Congress's ability to spend Social Security and Medicare surpluses on any other federal programs except Social Security and Medicare, until each program's long-term solvency is guaranteed.

George W. Bush: Set aside $2.4T for seniors as well as younger workers