To the Editor:
Do you know that more than $2.63 billion is missing from our Social Security Trust Fund? The tax that hard-working people pay with each paycheck to the Social Security “fund” is put into the general fund of the U. S. Treasury and can be used for things other than paying social security benefits.
Please call your U.S. representative. This bill is still sitting in committee! Encourage them to vote yes on the Savings for Seniors Act, HR 370. Passing this act will immediately make it illegal for politicians to use Social Security contributions for other purposes, would not allow them to cut benefits and raise our Social Security taxes, and will create enough surplus funds to pay benefits for many decades to come.
Nothing is more important than protecting Social Security to keep senior Americans from falling under the poverty line. In a July 2012 U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pension publication, it stated: “After a lifetime of hard work, people deserve the opportunity to live out their golden years with dignity and financial independence. We are facing a retirement crisis.”
It cited the following facts:
• The retirement income deficit — i.e., the difference between what people have saved for retirement and what they should have at this point — is $6.6 trillion;
• Only one in five people in the private sector workforce has a defined benefit pension plan; and
• Half of Americans have less than $10,000 in savings.
Please call your representative today! It is imperative that they vote “yes” on HR 370. Let’s speak with one voice and retain Social Security funding! No one should have to decide between putting food on the table and buying their medications.
Elizabeth Burke
Clinton
