Issue Position: Social Security and Medicare

Issue Position

I support preserving, protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare. I do not support privatizing, eliminating or phasing out these programs in any way. I will fully honor our commitment to current retirees and will not support any plan that impacts their benefits. We must also ensure these programs are preserved for future retirees.

The first thing we can do to protect Medicare is repeal ObamaCare, which cuts $500 billion from Medicare and empowers a board of unelected bureaucrats to make decisions that could deny care and increase costs. Unfortunately, the plan endorsed by President Obama and Ron Barber in this congressional race is to let Medicare go bankrupt, and that is simply unacceptable. We cannot allow these safeguards to go bankrupt by failing to preserve and protect them.

The Social Security Trustees have said that the program is going bankrupt. I believe Social Security is a sacred bond with our seniors and is a promise that must be kept. We must find a way to solve this problem so that every senior in our country has the retirement security they deserve. I think the only way to approach this is in a bipartisan way. Too often politics gets in the way of solutions to big problems like this. I have five principles for strengthening and protecting Social Security:

1. Any solution must be bipartisan
2. I will not vote for any solution that privatizes social security
3. I will not vote for any solution that raises taxes
4. I will not vote for any solution that cuts benefits
5. I will not vote for any solution that raises the retirement age

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