State of California secondary Archives: on Social Security

David Hadley: Raise state employee retirement age & make pensions portable

Because public pension costs are clearly jeopardizing vital local government services, David Hadley authored a bill allowing local non-public-safety agencies the option-- through the collective bargaining process--of increasing the retirement age to 65 years for newly hired employees.

Herman Cain: Chilean model: they fixed the same broken system as US

CAIN: I happen to believe that yes, Social Security, it needs fixing, not continuing to talk about it. I believe in the Chilean model, where you give a personal retirement account option so we can move this society from an entitlement society to an empowerment society. Chile had a broken system the way we did. Thirty years ago, a worker was paying 28 cents on a dollar into a broken system. They finally awakened and put in a system where the younger workers could have a choice. A novel idea. Give them a choice with an account with their name on it, and over time we would eliminate the current broken system that we have. That is a solution to the problem. Rather than continuing to talk about how broken it is, let's just fix it using the Chilean model.

Mitt Romney: Funding for Social Security is not working, but system works

ROMNEY: Well, the issue is not the funding of Social Security. We all agree that the funding program of Social Security is not working, and Congress has been raiding the dollars from Social Security to pay for annual government expenditures. That's wrong. The funding, however, is not the issue. [To Perry]: The issue in the book "Fed Up," Governor, is you say that by any measure, Social Security is a failure. You can't say that to tens of millions of Americans who live on Social Security and those who have lived on it. The governor says look, states ought to be able to opt out of Social Security. Our nominee has to be someone who isn't committed to abolishing Social Security, but who is committed to saving Social Security. Under no circumstances would I ever say by any measure it's a failure. It is working for millions of Americans, and I'll keep it working for millions of Americans. And we've got to do that as a party.

Nanette Barragan: Never gamble Social Security benefits on Wall Street

As a diabetic, Nanette's mom has had to choose between medication and groceries. No senior in America should have to make such a terrible choice. Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, have suggested we cut benefits, gamble them on Wall Street and even dismantle these programs altogether. Instead, we need to strengthen and expand them, reduce fraud and waste and ensure everyone pays their fair share so these critical programs will be in place for years to come.

Rick Perry: It's a monstrous lie that young people will get benefits

PERRY: Well, rather than spending a lot of time talking about the '30s and the '40s, it's a nice intellectual conversation, but the fact is we have got to be focused on how we're going to change this program. People who are on Social Security today, men and women who are receiving those benefits today, and individuals at my age that are in line pretty quick to get them, they don't need to worry about anything. But I think the Republican candidates are talking about ways to transition this program, and it is a monstrous lie. It is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you're paying into a program that's going to be there. Anybody that's for the status quo with Social Security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids, and it's not right.

Rick Perry: Cannot keep the Social Security status quo

PERRY: We're about fixing things. You can either have reasons or you can have results. And the American people expect us to put results in place. You cannot keep the status quo in place and not call it anything other than a Ponzi scheme. It is. That is what it is. Americans know that, and regardless of what anyone says, oh, it's not--and that's provocative language--maybe it's time to have some provocative language in this country and say things like, let's get America working again and do whatever it takes to make that happen.