Roosevelt's promise: A time to remember and renew

By Senator Bill Nelson

February 15, 2005

Recently, I received a letter from a constituent in Florida who told me an all too familiar story: “I’ve spent my life supporting my family, paying my taxes, sharing and giving to the less fortunate. I invested in my family and my country. And I do not regret that. I am still working and supporting my children and grandchildren. However, there will be a day when I can no longer work. Most likely, all I will have to fall back on is Social Security.”

My constituent isn’t alone. In fact, two out of three beneficiaries receive over 50 percent of their retirement income from Social Security. And it’s the only source of income for one-fifth of Americans over 65.

The same constituent went on to ask questions that likely are weighing on the minds of many elderly Americans, “Are you going to consider me a burden, a problem, an obligation that needs to be reduced or eliminated? Or are you going to remember everything I did for my family and my country?”

Seventy years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law, President George W. Bush wants to divert some money from the Social Security Trust Fund and risk it in the stock market. This plan is no honor to Roosevelt’s legacy, because it fails to address long-term funding shortfalls in the system and stands to cut benefits that are a lifeline for so many Americans. It doesn’t to live up to the promise we originally made to retirees who spend a lifetime working hard and paying Social Security premiums.

Rather than taking trillions of dollars out of the system for private accounts, I’m working with leaders in Congress to come up with a bipartisan solution to challenges the program now faces. I’m also drafting legislation to give workers tax breaks for saving more for their own retirement – over and above Social Security.

I believe we have a moral obligation to ensure that retirees, disabled individuals and their survivors have the safety net of Social Security – now and in the future. The system has been fixed in the past, and I’m confident it can be again – if we can keep politics out of the debate.

Bill Nelson is the senior U.S. senator from Florida who sits on the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

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