John Shaw: “I want to introduce to my colleagues someone that they may already know, Ida May Fuller. Ida May was the recipient of…”

“I want to introduce to my colleagues someone that they may already know, Ida May Fuller. Ida May was the recipient of the first Social Security check ever issued. In 1940, the year Ida May began collecting, Social Security was a dream come true for retiring Americans. For every Ida May, there were 42 younger workers contributing to her retirement. Ida May worked under Social Security for 3 years, paid in $24 and got more than $22,000 in benefits. Ida May Fuller got one heck of a deal. Fast forward now to 2005, March 15, 2005, the day that my 15th grandchild was born, Keegan Riley Shaw. Today, there are only three workers supporting each retiree; and soon, it will dwindle to two. If we do not act now to save Social Security, when Keegan walks across the stage at his college graduation, a diploma will not be the only thing he is handed. Try a $600 billion-a-year tax hike. And when Keegan retires and goes to his mailbox to get his Social Security check, unlike Ida May, he will be opening a giant IOU. I am fighting so that my grandchildren, and every grandchild in America, have a secure retirement, just like Ida May. Let us start talking about the next generation, not the next election.”