Chris Stewart on Social Security

Personal Savings Plans for workers under 55

We must enact Social Security Reform if we want to survive. We can do that by:
• Not jeopardizing the future of American retirees. My plan will preserve the existing Social Security program for those 55 or older.
• Creating Personal Savings Plans that would allow workers under 55 to invest one third their Social Security tax into personal retirement accounts. These private accounts would allow future generations to be independent of the government when they reach retirement age. They also have the added benefit of being owned and controlled by the individual and not the government.
• Redefining Social Security back to its original intent--a true insurance plan to guarantee against poverty in old age. To accomplish this, we must begin means testing Social Security benefits.
• Using a more accurate Cost of Living Adjustment formula.
• Implementing a more reasonable retirement age that reflects the dramatic increases in the life expectancy.

Supports personal retirement accounts.

Project Vote Smart infers candidate issue stances on key topics by summarizing public speeches and public statements. Congressional candidates are given the opportunity to respond in detail; about 11% did so in the 2012 races.

Project Vote Smart summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: 'Social Security: Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts?'

Rated 0% by ARA, indicating a pro-privatization stance.

Scoring system for 2014: Ranges from 0% (supports privatization and other market-based reforms) to 100% (supports keeping federal control over Trust Fund and Social Security system).

About ARA (from their website, www.RetiredAmericans.org):

The Alliance for Retired Americans is a nationwide organization, founded in May 2001, with now over 4.2 million members working together to make their voices heard in the laws, policies, politics, and institutions that shape our lives. 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.

• Alliance members visit the polls in record numbers. We use the power of our membership and our Congressional Voting Record to educate and mobilize seniors to elect leaders committed to improving the lives of retirees and older Americans.
• We are effectively warding off cuts to our most important social programs like Social Security and Medicare. Our Human Chain Against the Chained CPI events in the summer of 2013 took place in more than 50 cities and mobilized support for stopping this cut to earned Social Security benefits.
• We blocked the privatization of Social Security with our Social Security "Truth Truck" delivering 2.1 million petitions to Members of Congress and other tactics.
• The Alliance makes its voice heard on the issues that matter not just to current retirees, but to all Americans who hope to retire one day. We were a leading voice in recent debates considering changes to Medicare, like replacing guaranteed benefits with a voucher system, and remain so in 2014.