The Trustees of Social Security have warned us for years about the serious structural problems facing the program.  While we are fortunate to have a surplus in the trust fund today, if changes are not made by 2017, the program will begin to run a deficit.  By 2041, the system will be bankrupt.  If Congress does nothing to fix Social Security, our children and grandchildren will be saddled with $10.4 trillion in costs.  These facts are indisputable.

I have repeatedly stated my position on strengthening Social Security: I will never support any effort to cut Social Security benefits for today’s retirees or near retirees, nor will I support any effort to privatize the Social Security program.

It is unfortunate that partisan political parties and interest groups continually attempt to distort this statement for their own gain.  Instead of confronting the challenges facing Social Security with real legislative proposals, these do-nothings only want to stick their heads in the sand and ignore the looming Social Security problem.  One of the ways these groups have found to misrepresent the facts is to play word games with Social Security reform.  Let me tell you what words mean to me:

• Privatization means taking Social Security completely out of the hands of government and turning the program over to a private entity.  I will never vote to privatize Social Security.
• Personal accounts means giving younger workers the choice to invest a portion of their tax dollars into safe and secure accounts.  If they choose to invest, workers would have access to accounts similar to the Thrift Savings Plan that Members of Congress use.  Workers would own these accounts and could pass them on to heirs and dependents.  More importantly, these accounts would still be under the control of the government, not Wall Street.  This is not privatization.

Let me reiterate, however, that I have not given my endorsement to any proposal just yet, including the personal accounts promoted by President Bush.  His ideas are only guidelines proposed to Congress, and are only a few of many under consideration.  Like you, I am waiting until I have fully researched every proposal before I make a final decision.  Our future depends too much on those decisions.

The reality remains that Congress only has a few choices to guarantee the solvency of Social Security.  We must face these challenges so that they are not passed on to our children and grandchildren.  Any solution will require choices, bi-partisanship, and public discussion.  I look forward to working with my constituents and colleagues on both sides of the aisle to guarantee long-term solvency for Social Security.