James Roosevelt Quotes

The reason to deal with Social Security is that it is a system where we have a tradition and history of making sure it is solidly funded for 75 years. At the moment, we look out and we see it is solidly funded until 2037.

Social Security is a social insurance program - it is not designed to be the same thing as a 401(k).

I believe that social security should be a universal retirement guarantee and not means tested.

It has to have a payroll tax that's dedicated to Social Security. The Social Security tax has been very successful over the years in raising almost all of our elderly citizens out of poverty.

As you know, Social Security functions under the premise that today's workers will help finance benefits for retirees and that these workers will then be supported by the next generation of workers paying into the same system.

We must work to stabilize Social Security. We must not gamble with our nation's social insurance program, one of our most popular and effective federal programs that has remained dependable and stable for the past 70 years.

The Social Security trust fund is in pretty good shape today and we should not embark upon risky, dangerous schemes which will, in fact, undermine Social Security, such as privatization.

According to the Social Security Administration, in 1945, 41.9 workers supported each individual retiree, while today only 3.3 workers support each retiree. This system cannot continue.

The myth is that people get their money back from Social Security. Not true. You get somebody else's money back. This is an intergenerational transfer.

From the employees' standpoint, in 1935, Social Security was a big gamble. Employees would be required to participate in the program, contributing a percentage of their income for their entire adult working life.

Social Security is a tax.

There is a need for Social Security reform to ensure its stability, and Congress must act.

Since 1935, this has been a pay-as-you-go system, and I always believed when I first started talking about Social Security that there was a little box that had my name on it and it had my benefits for when I retired. That is not true.

Social Security is something that we need to deal with, because people who are working today, who will retire in the future, people who are retired today, they have a right - and it's part of the compact that they can depend on their benefits. We should fix the long-term funding problem of Social Security because that's the right thing to do.

I never sought to privatize Social Security.

Social Security is meant to be - to make sure that no one who's worked hard and played by the rules and paid into the system grows old in poverty in America.

Social Security is a program that should be strengthened and preserved for future generations.

Social Security is on the books. We’ll pay for it as long as we have money or can borrow it.

Social Security is a Ponzi scheme.

Social Security works better than any other program in the world. Why dismantle it now?

The debate over Social Security should not be about how much we can cut from the program in order to balance the federal budget. The debate over Social Security should not be about raising the retirement age or limiting benefits. The debate over Social Security should be about retirement security.

A lifetime single worker really gets a horrid deal from Social Security. The return on average is less than 0.5 percent. These workers would be nearly better off stuffing their payroll tax dollars under a mattress.

People talk about Social Security. There is no parallel between Rhode Island's pension and Social Security.

Social Security is fundamentally strong.

If you can't even acknowledge that you have to fix Social Security, that's not a very good starting point.