Christopher Shays on Social Security Republican Representative (CT-4)

Voted YES on raising 401(k) limits & making pension plans more portable.

Voted YES on reducing tax payments on Social Security benefits.

Voted NO on strengthening the Social Security Lockbox.

Create personal retirement accounts within Social Security.

OFFICIAL CONGRESSIONAL SUMMARY:

• Amends Social Security Act to add a new tax-exempt "Personal Retirement Account Program".
• Designates a personal retirement account for each such individual that is funded by deposits from amounts in the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund not otherwise required for immediate withdrawal, and by rollover and other contributions made by eligible individuals.
• Directs the SEC to report to Congress on personal retirement account reinsurance.
• Amends the tax code to provide for: (1) annual $300 contributions (tax credits) on behalf of each eligible individual to a personal retirement account; and (2) an excise tax on excess contributions to such accounts.

SPONSOR'S INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT: One of the things I have consistently heard from folks back home is the very simple idea that the first part of saving Social Security is making sure that Social Security taxes stay with Social Security. That is what this bill does because it takes the Social Security surplus, whatever that happens to be, and simply rebates it back to the people paying Social Security taxes, not to go out and fix up the car or buy a refrigerator with it, but instead to go into their own personal Social Security savings account that would be held by a fiduciary like the local bank.

The individual could not get their hands on the money until they turn 65, but they would get a monthly statement and for the first time, because of the private property rights that come with an account like that, for the first time have a firewall created between political forces in D.C. and their Social Security surplus.

LEGISLATIVE OUTCOME: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means; never called for a House vote.

Rated 10% by the ARA, indicating an anti-senior voting record.

The mission of the Alliance for Retired Americans is to ensure social and economic justice and full civil rights for all citizens so that they may enjoy lives of dignity, personal and family fulfillment and security. The Alliance believes that all older and retired persons have a responsibility to strive to create a society that incorporates these goals and rights and that retirement provides them with opportunities to pursue new and expanded activities with their unions, civic organizations and their communities.

The following ratings are based on the votes the organization considered most important; the numbers reflect the percentage of time the representative voted the organization's preferred position.

Reduce taxes on Social Security earnings.

[As part of the Contract with America, within 100 days we pledge to bring to the House Floor the following bill]:

The Senior Citizens Fairness Act:
Raise the Social Security earnings limit, which currently forces seniors out of the workforce; repeal the 1993 tax hikes on Social Security; and provide tax incentives for private long-term care insurance to let older Americans keep more of what they have earned over the years.

Supports individual savings accounts and work incentives.

Congress must address the rapidly approaching disaster of a depleted Social Security system. Within the next ten years "baby boomers" will start retiring. It is estimated that, as a result of this, by 2013 Social Security will be making greater payments to retirees than it will take in from the workforce. By 2032 the Social Security Trust Fund will be completely exhausted. Congress could rewrite this forecast by establishing individual savings accounts, restoring Social Security to permanent actuarial solvency, improving work incentives and/or resolving internal administrative problems.