Hank Johnson: “Social Security is one of the hallmarks of American civilization. It civilizes us where we can have a mechanism where we…”

“Social Security is one of the hallmarks of American civilization. It civilizes us where we can have a mechanism where we all come together to contribute our money into a pool as we work; and when we retire, we have a way of avoiding the poorhouse; we have a way of living out our lives with dignity and with comfort. You've paid your dues, you deserve to live out your retirement in a comfortable way. You put the money in, and you will get the money out. And as you say, we've never missed a payment and never will. It being a hallmark of our civilization, it is something that many other countries have yet to put in place for their people. They have yet to see the wisdom, as our past leaders have seen, that you lose and your society weakens in accordance with how you treat your elderly and how you treat your children and how you treat the disabled. They also are able to get Social Security benefits. So it helps people. It's our social safety net. This is a collective. It's a mechanism whereby the whole supports each other, the weakest of these, if you will. Social Security is not broke, nor is the Federal Government. The Federal Government is not broke. It has had to borrow money. And when we say borrow money, we really mean we offer Treasurys out to the public to purchase, and we pay interest on those instruments. When an investor feels good about how solid the American system is, they want to put money into it.…”