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Fulfilling Our Promise
September 26, 2005
By Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)
America is one of the hardest working nations in the world. We spend our lives working, day in and day out, to provide for ourselves and for our families. And in our retirement years, hardworking Americans deserve the opportunity to slow down, to take the time to look back on all that we’ve accomplished and to enjoy all that we have to look forward to.
For millions of Americans over the past seventy years, retirement security has been provided for by Social Security, a system into which workers pay throughout their years of employment and draw from once retirement age is reached. After paying Social Security taxes over their working lifetimes and planning for retirement with the expectation that they will receive Social Security benefits, many Americans rightly assume that the federal government has a moral obligation to pay full benefits. In order to make this a legal obligation in addition to a moral one, I recently introduced the Social Security Guarantee Act of 2005.
At its most basic, the Social Security program is a promise from the federal government to our citizens, a promise that if you work hard and contribute to the system during your working life you will reap the benefits during retirement. Since this program was created in 1935, the federal government has been able to fulfill this promise. Whether the government will still have the ability to do so in the future has become a topic of great concern, public discussion, and unfortunately, misinformation over the past few months.
Without question, budget deficits, a decreasing workforce and shrinking Social Security surpluses have given seniors and near-retirees plenty of reason to worry that their retirement security will be negatively impacted. But these individuals have paid into the system throughout their lives, supporting the generations before them during their retirement years. It is not fair for the federal government to change the equation for people who are retired or close to retirement age and are counting on a Social Security check to help sustain their lives.
Earlier this year, as I spent time traveling the state and participating in town hall meetings with Pennsylvanians about the future of Social Security, the most common concern I heard came from seniors and near-retirees who fear that they will not receive their promised benefits. The Social Security Guarantee Act makes it federal law that they will. Many seniors expressed fear that inflation and other increased costs will jeopardize their ability to live on the current benefit. This legislation creates a legally binding cost-of-living increase that will occur annually, ensuring that the benefits our seniors receive are adequately adjusted for inflation. After a lifetime of hard work, Americans rightly feel a powerful sense of ownership over their Social Security benefits, and it is high time that Congress gives seniors and near-retirees the peace of mind they deserve by providing an official, written guarantee for these benefits.
As so many of my colleagues in both the Senate and the House of Representatives have publicly stated their support for ensuring that those over the age of 55 obtain their promised benefits, I see no reason that this bill will not receive overwhelming bipartisan support. By alleviating concerns that reforms designed to strengthen Social Security for younger workers may reduce their benefits, the Social Security Guarantee Act will allow seniors to look at the current situation simply as it pertains to their children and grandchildren, enabling them to bring valuable insights and considerable experience to the table free of fear that their own benefits will be reduced. And most importantly, we are guaranteeing that the promise our government made to American workers is kept.
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