Political Quotes

“I apologize for not being able to ask a question to the chairman of our Subcommittee on Social Security, but all of Texas educators, teachers, administrators, custodial, cafeteria workers, everyone is affected by this bill. It moves it to be qualified to 5 years. But let me explain the reason. They are not paying into Social Security now. They do not receive anything for what they pay into Social Security. It is for them as being a widow of someone who paid into Social Security. The best example is that someone in my district works at a machine shop for 40 years and they are married to someone who works in a public school system in Texas, that the vast majority of the Texas school districts are not participants in Social Security by law from this Congress. That widow, that person dies, the person who paid in their whole work life into Social Security, their widow is penalized by this legislation. So Texas has found a way around it by letting them go to find a school district and work 1 day. Well, it is a loophole, but, in all honesty, it is a loophole that benefits widows. It is interesting. I want to deal with the big issues in Social Security, but, in all honesty, we need to deal with it without punishing the widows of people who have paid into Social Security their whole work life and may have been married for 40 years and then they get penalized by the Government Pension Offset.”