Stephanie Herseth Sandlin: “Mr. Speaker, today the House stands to make a choice. We can choose to support our widowed teachers or we can choose to…”

“Mr. Speaker, today the House stands to make a choice. We can choose to support our widowed teachers or we can choose to oppose them. The choice is ours. It is as simple as that. I am appalled that our friends on the other side of the aisle would take a stand against our teachers and claim, as they have, that the teachers are engaged in a gimmick or a trick or a fraud. That is absolutely insulting to America's teachers. Obtaining spousal benefits is not a trick or a fraud. It is a payment for an entire lifetime of work by a spouse. Saying that teachers receive Social Security for working 1 day is simply not true, and our friends on the other side of the aisle know it. The real fraud is that the Republicans have failed to address the GPO. Here is the way the Republican plan works. If someone works for an insurance company, there is no offset. If someone works for a pharmaceutical company, there is no offset. But if that person elects to be a teacher and educate our children, there is an offset and their spouse's lifetime of work is absolutely meaningless under the Republican plan. At least our friends on the other side of the aisle are consistent. They believe that neither veterans nor teachers should receive benefits they have earned.”