On the recordJuly 20, 2010
This year we celebrate the 75th birthday of Social Security. Since Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act in 1935, Americans have known that they can rely on Social Security benefits when they retire. Today, over 160,000 Hawaii seniors and millions of seniors in every other State receive monthly Social Security benefits, but Republican leaders in Congress have a new plan to privatize Social Security, balancing the budget on the backs of our seniors. Does this sound familiar? George Bush and congressional Republicans fought to privatize Social Security in 2005. Seniors all across the country rose up in angry protest. If Republicans had succeeded then, seniors would have lost trillions in the stock market meltdown of the Bush recession. Unbelievably, the Republicans still have not given up on their idea to privatize Social Security. You have to ask, what is it that makes them so deaf to what seniors in our country tell me loud and clear-- preserve Social Security.
