Jim Kolbe: “I think the gentleman has made a very important point, one that we need to stress, because there are a lot of people all…”

“I think the gentleman has made a very important point, one that we need to stress, because there are a lot of people all over the place in various groups that are not interested in seeing this problem fixed. They have been trying to scare a lot of seniors, and it is wrong to do that because none of the plans, not one of the plans that are on the table suggest that there is going to be any change in the benefits for those who are retired today or for those who are near retirement. So I think it is very important, as the gentleman said, that his 84- year-old mother understand, and all our other senior citizens understand, that we are really not talking about changing any benefits for them. We are talking about the next generation. We are talking about their grandchildren, how could we fix it for their grandchildren so that their grandchildren will be able to say that there is something in the Social Security system that is going to be there for me. A person who is retiring today has less than a 1 percent return on all the taxes they have paid over the years up to retirement in terms of what they are going to get out of it between now and their expected death. A person who is coming into the workforce today at the age of 21 will have a negative rate of return. In other words, they will lose money based on what they are going to pay in taxes versus what they are going to get in benefits.…”