Political Quotes

“In fact, in 1974, Congress repealed an earlier statute to allow a reduction at age 70. Congress cited concerns about the hardship the reductions caused on senior citizens as well as concerns about age discrimination when repealing the past less severe version of this legislation. No matter a person's age, they have every right to that benefit. I agree that we should be taking a closer look at ways to prevent fraud and abuse in this program, but reducing benefits for people at retirement age has nothing to do with reducing fraud. My amendment allows the Department of Labor to obtain wage data from the Social Security Administration--this will help prevent fraud. It has been argued that these cuts bring the FECA program more in line with the state programs. However, most state programs have no benefit reductions for recipients at retirement age. In fact, 33 state programs do not reduce benefits at any age. At our subcommittee hearing last July, the minority requested witness stated that these states seem to have no interest in cutting benefits for senior citizens. Finally, proponents of these cuts have emphasized repeatedly that these provisions are very similar to an Obama administration proposal. This was actually a Bush administration proposal that the Obama administration simply kept in place.…”