Chaka Fattah Quotes

If we didn't have Social Security, our seniors would live mostly in poverty. You'd have another 18 million people in poverty.

Because Social Security is specifically designed to boost the retirement income of low earners with a progressive benefit formula, the program has played an enormous and necessary role in keeping Latinas out of poverty.

Social Security not only helps Americans enjoy a secure retirement, it has also kept millions of Americans out of poverty.

Before Social Security existed, about half of America's senior citizens lived in poverty.

There was a time not too long ago when American seniors were too often forced to go without food, medicine, and quality healthcare. But thanks to transformative programs like Social Security, most seniors in this country are provided the opportunity to live with the stability and peace of mind they have earned and deserve.

When the average Social Security benefit is $1328 a month, and more than one-third of our senior citizens rely on Social Security for Virtually all of their income, our job is to expand benefits, not cut them.

Social Security is not a retirement savings plan; it is a social insurance program. It's a contract that says, as a society, we will look out for you and your family when you can no longer work.

We need to take steps to strengthen and mend Social Security so that its promise of a secure retirement is just as real for seniors in the future as it is today.

I am emphatically against the privatization of Social Security. It is going to hurt millions of American women, American families and ultimately the whole country.

I stand with the millions of seniors and working people who depend on Social Security and who expect the money they put in to be there for them when they retire.

If Republicans eliminate Medicare, America will become a country in which you can never retire - and once you physically can no longer work, you are desperately poor until you die.

Social Security is an insurance policy. It's a terrible investment vehicle. Social Security has some great benefits. But it was never meant to be a savings plan. So we need to have a national debate. Should this 12.5 percent that we're contributing all go into a Social Security pool, or should half go into a mandatory savings plan?

Research by James Poterba at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finds that the wealth of the U.S.'s elderly is highly skewed. About half of retirees have little or no financial wealth when they retire and depend almost entirely on Social Security for their income.

I will work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to preserve the Social Security promise that provides secure retirement benefits for all, especially those who are most at risk such as widows, orphans, and people with disabilities when the need arises.

All Americans have a sacred duty to guarantee Social Security benefits to our nation's senior citizens.

Our nation's Social Security Trust Fund is depleting at an alarming rate, and failure to implement immediate reforms endangers the ability of Americans to plan for their retirement with the options and certainty they deserve.

I never need to go far if I need a reminder of how important Medicare and Social Security are to Missouri's seniors. My mom, Betty Anne, is one of millions for whom these services provide a reliable safety net. Across the country, these protections are an integral part of sustaining millions of seniors' health and dignity.

As a result of the current universal benefit, the poverty rate for seniors in America is about 10%. Without the universal benefit, it would be over 50%.

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.

Privatizing Social Security will take dollars out of young folks' pockets.

I was once a welfare recipient and am very aware of the successes and failures of this critical safety net. There are those that would have us believe that those receiving TANF benefits are lazy, shiftless, freeloaders who are just sitting around thinking of another way to suckle from the government teat.

Social Security makes up a much larger share of total retirement income for unmarried women and minorities than it does for married couples, unmarried men and whites.

We should stop having a conversation about cutting Social Security a little bit or a lot.

What is the alternative to Social Security for those at the lower end of the income distribution whose personal savings by definition are not going to be that high? There really isn’t any.

It is rather a shame for a rich country like ours ... that it should allow those who have toiled all their days to end in penury and possible starvation.