Issue Position: Protecting and Strengthening Our Safety Net

Issue Position

As a United States Senator, Hector Balderas will always fight to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. We have a duty to protect the retirement and health security of our seniors and most vulnerable citizens.

Protecting our safety net for seniors is a moral imperative, as well as smart fiscal and economic policy. Not only does the federal government have an obligation to uphold its sacred contract with our citizens, but any threat to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will have a devastating impact on our economy. Our safety net was first created to help America pull out of the Great Depression -- why would anyone think that eliminating it now would help pull us out of our current recession?

Privatizing Social Security and ending Medicare as we know it, as Republicans continue to advocate for, would have disastrous effects. We have seen the devastating consequences that occur when people's retirement savings are pegged solely to the volatile swings of the market. We cannot place these burdens on our seniors. When elected, Hector will insist on keeping these programs intact and having an adult conversation about how we improve them, without letting politics get in the way.

Unfortunately, too many in Washington just don't get it.

As Senator, Hector will fight against attempts to weaken our safety net:

He will oppose efforts to privatize Social Security and put our seniors' retirement security in the hands of a volatile stock market;

He will oppose efforts to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a voucher system that will overburden cash-strapped states and increase costs for seniors by over $6,000 per year;

He will oppose Republican efforts to cut food stamp benefits for New Mexico families by nearly $2,000 per year. This program has helped so many families work their way into the middle class;

And he will fight against proposals that would cause 36 million Americans to lose their Medicaid coverage -- including people with disabilities and seniors in nursing homes.

Hector knows that we can strengthen these programs with strategic reforms -- like allowing the federal government to negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical companies for prescription drugs in the Medicare Part D program -- that will save taxpayer dollars without jeopardizing benefits.

As Senator, Hector will stand up to those who argue that we can't afford these programs, because he knows that investing in a strong, healthy population now is the right -- and fiscally responsible -- thing to do.

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