Bart Gordon on Social Security Democratic Representative (TN-6)

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

Voted YES on reducing tax payments on Social Security benefits.

Voted YES on strengthening the Social Security Lockbox.

Strengthen Trust Funds and take them off-budget.

Blue Dog budget framework
• Take the Social Security and Medicare trust fund surpluses off-budget and require that the trust fund surpluses be saved for Social Security and Medicare
• Reserve half of the on-budget surplus over the next five years -- $370 billion -- for debt reduction and strengthening Social Security and Medicare
• Allocate one-quarter of the on-budget surplus over the next five years for investments in priorities identified by the President and supported by both parties in Congress, including defense, Medicare prescription drugs, education, agriculture, low-income programs and veterans.
• Devote one-quarter of the on-budget surplus to tax cuts retroactive to 2001, for a net tax cut of $180 billion from 2001-2006.

Changing Social Security disproportionately affects women.

RESOLUTION: Recognizing the unique effects that proposals to reform Social Security may have on women.

• Whereas the Social Security benefit structure is of particular importance to low-earning wives and widows, with 63% of women beneficiaries aged 62 or older receiving wife's or widow's benefits;
• Whereas 3/4 of unmarried and widowed elderly women rely on Social Security for over half of their income;
• Whereas without Social Security benefits, the elderly poverty rate among women would have been 52.2% and among widows would have been 60.6%;
• Whereas women tend to live longer and tend to have lower lifetime earnings than men do;
• Whereas women spend an average of 11.5 years out of their careers to care for their families, and are more likely to work part-time than full-time; and
• Whereas during these years in the workforce, women earn an average of 70 cents for every dollar men earn:
• Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives recognizes the unique obstacles that women face in ensuring retirement security and survivor and disability stability and the essential role that Social Security plays in guaranteeing inflation-protected financial stability for women throughout their entire old age, and it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the Congress and the President should take these factors into account when considering proposals to reform the Social Security system.

Rated 90% by the ARA, indicating a pro-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.