Tom Price: “America's Social Security system has been described with nearly every word in the dictionary: crisis, problem, trouble…”

“America's Social Security system has been described with nearly every word in the dictionary: crisis, problem, trouble, bankruptcy. One can play the semantics game with Social Security all they want, but the fact of the matter is that Social Security is broken and needs fixing. Back in 1935 the system worked well. Retirement age back then was 65 and the average life expectancy 63. A pretty good deal for the government. Today, however, Americans are living longer than ever and far more likely to live long enough to get their benefits. Social Security is not a savings plan. It is a pay-as-you-go system where today's workers support today's retirees and tomorrow's workers support tomorrow's retirees. The number of workers supporting each retiree was 42 when the program started. It is now three, with the payroll taxes on the paychecks of hard-working Americans going up 600 percent over the time when it gets to two. Just in 3 years, 2008, the government will begin to pay out more in Social Security benefits than it collects in payroll taxes. It does not take a math whiz to understand that the pay-as-you-go system will not provide retirement security for American workers. Mr. Speaker, it is a problem and must be resolved. I urge my colleagues to join me in solving it.”