Issue Position: Social Security

Issue Position

One of my highest priorities as a Member of Congress is protecting the interests of America's senior citizens and the promise of social security. We all must work towards ensuring the integrity and solvency of the Social Security and Medicare programs for current and future retirees. Additionally, we need to make sure that seniors are not being treated unfairly by any federal laws, like the Government Pension Offset and Social Security windfall taxes. I believe so strongly in this that I have worked with Congressman Berman in almost every Congress for the last ten years to introduce legislation to repeal the unfair GPO/WEP provisions and will do so again in the 112th Congress.

Our nation's dedicated teachers, firefighters, peace officers, and other public servants have a great need for this reform to further secure their retirement. the GPO reduces or eliminates Social Security spousal benefits if a worker's spouse has a government pension based on work that was not covered by Social Security. Likewise, the WEP reduces Social Security worker benefits based on work history by applying a less generous formula to the calculation of benefits. Unfortunately, these provisions can significantly decrease the retirement pay of millions of hard-working public servants even though they have worked for relatively lower wages than most workers in the private sector.

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