Social Security
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I am very committed to addressing the challenges facing Social Security and in protecting it for current workers, as well as future retirees.
Social Security
Many seniors live on a fixed income, and I know how important Social Security checks are for their medicines and day-to-day living expenses. Based on current forecasts, Social Security can pay full benefits until 2033, after which it will only be able to pay 75 percent of its benefits. In 2011, Social Security saw its expenditures exceed its revenues for the first time in the program's history.
I am very committed to addressing the challenges facing Social Security and in protecting it for current workers, as well as future retirees. While the system is not facing an imminent crisis, it will face some irrefutable structural problems in the not-too-distant future. And every year that we delay addressing the issue, the solutions become more expensive and more painful.
I support legislation that would make changes to Social Security for the next generation of recipients, those under 55, while leaving the current system in place for those who have planned their retirements around it.
Medicare
Like Social Security, Medicare has become a critical component of the social safety net upon which many of our senior citizens rely. And also like Social Security, Medicare is on an unsustainable funding path that will render it bankrupt by 2024 unless significant reforms are undertaken. And making matters even worse, the healthcare reform that was recently passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, cuts an additional $718 billion from Medicare.
While in Congress, I have supported the Ryan Budget, which will make no changes to Medicare for those 55 and older. Under this plan, those 54 and younger will have the option of keeping traditional Medicare or moving into a program modeled after Medicare Part D, one of the only government programs to ever come in under budget by 40 percent.