Political Quotes

“With enactment of the Social Security Act in 1935, this country promised Americans that if they worked hard and contributed to the program to support others, when they retire or become disabled or lose a spouse, they will be taken care of, too. Social Security helps us provide for retirees but also disabled workers, widows and widowers, spouses, and children. Franklin Delano Roosevelt claimed that Social Security would ``promote the common welfare and the economic stability of the Nation,'' and it has. Social Security has kept millions of seniors out of poverty and continues to do so. Today, Social Security provides monthly checks to more than 65 million beneficiaries who rely on it for food and other necessities. For over 85 years now, trusting in the promise of Social Security, millions of Americans have worked hard, paying into the program out of every single paycheck for decades. In 2019, Social Security had helped 31,146 Alaskans stay out of poverty. A report from a few years ago found that without Social Security the elderly poverty rate in Alaska would have increased from 7.6 percent to 28 percent. As of 2021, over 110,000 Alaskans were receiving monthly Social Security benefits, including 84,796 who are 65 and older. In total, that is over 13 percent of Alaskan residents. I was raised, as I think many others were, with the value of treating elders with great deference and respect, to care for them as they have cared for us.…”