Social Security Reform
- Details
- Created on Friday, 15 February 2013 08:31
- Written by AMAC
Washington, DC - Conservative Congressmen expressed a desire to work with their liberal counterparts to save Social Security at a Capitol Hill Valentine's Day reception yesterday.
"It wasn't exactly a love fest, but perhaps Cupid's arrow hit close enough to its mark to make it possible for the two sides to come together for the sake of preserving this endangered vital benefit," said Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens, which sponsored the event.
Weber said he believes that the "spirit of cooperation" on this issue in Congress is such that meaningful negotiations and that final passage of a bill ensuring the solvency of Social Security for the next 80 years are possible.
"The atmosphere among legislators who attended our reception was one of real concern and commitment. They expressed to us a genuine desire to deal with Social Security reform sooner than later, echoing private conversations that AMAC has had with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle over a period of more than a year."
He explained that AMAC has had the preservation of Social Security as a top issue since its founding. "We have been consistently, diligently and personally pressing our case among lawmakers of both parties in D.C. in behalf of our members and all current and future benefit recipients. In fact, we have even gone so far as to offer up a prototype bill that can be used as the basis of a common sense resolution to keep and improve Social Security."
Weber said that his optimism is based on the association's continuing, positive one-on-one meetings with Congressmen. "We are particularly gratified by the Conservative representatives who attended AMAC's Valentine's Day reception to highlight that they care about the fate of Social Security and are ready, willing and able to reach across the aisle to find bipartisan solutions."
He said that AMAC has studied the issue and polled its members who believe that Social Security reform should include protection for those individuals currently receiving benefits, fair and balanced age setbacks for future recipients, guaranteed modest, minimum, yearly cost of living increases and a provision for a new personal Social Security IRA.