Two years ago, the HuffPost suggested that Vance may have in the past supported social security cuts citing an old blog post where he noted that entitlement programs were widening the federal budget deficits. Vance, though, said that was not his view. "I don't support cuts to social security or Medicare and think privatizing social security is a bad idea," HuffPost quoted him saying to the publication.
"Undocumented immigrants are not legally permitted to receive Social Security benefits and few actually do. When you apply for a job, you're required to provide your Social Security number. Undocumented immigrants, who don't have an Social Security number, may choose to use an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or an ITIN. Those who use an ITIN cannot receive Social Security retirement benefits [but still must pay taxes]. Sometimes undocumented immigrants do receive retirement benefits by using a [borrowed or fake] Social Security number. A 2013 report found that $1 billion worth of retirement benefits were paid out to undocumented immigrants. However, undocumented immigrants paid a whopping $13 billion in payroll taxes."
A: I just want to be clear at the outset about one thing: no cuts for seniors on Social Security or Medicare. We have to stand by the commitments we've already made. Then we can actually have rational conversations about quirks in Social Security today--like if you're a working senior you're actually penalized for working--we disincentivize work. This is nutty! We have more jobs available in this country than we do have people so for people who want to work, they should still be able to get their Social Security payments that they paid into, but also earn on top of that. Back when we did have a Social Security surplus--it wasn't that long ago--if we had just allowed that money to be invested in the same way that your financial advisor would--in a diversified portfolio--we would be swimming in surplus today.
Howie Hawkins: No. Supports doubling Social Security benefits, financed "through more progressive income and wealth taxes instead of relying on regressive payroll taxes."
Jo Jorgensen: Yes. Supports individual retirement accounts, and a solution like the Cato Institute's "6.2% solution," which would allow any American to "opt out" of the current system.
The Green Party supports a strengthened and enforceable Endangered Species Act. We support reintroducing native species to areas from which they have been eradicated, eliminating predator control on public lands, and reintroducing native predators where they would contribute to a viable ecosystem. We should educate ourselves about animal behaviors to overcome our culture's irrational fear of wildlife, and learn techniques of co-existence with other species.
Social Security has worked well for generations to reduce poverty among seniors and the disabled. It is under attack today by Wall Street banks and related financial "service" entities who want to privatize it for no other reason than to tap into another new and huge source of income and bonuses.
To that end, opponents of Social Security have claimed over the last few years that it is running out of money soon. It is true that there could be problems with Social Security funding down the line, but they are quite easily solved by making modest changes, such as raising the cap on income subject to Social Security payroll tax. That simple modification can keep the system solvent indefinitely, without reducing benefits.
Trump would encourage states to sell our nation's highways, bridges, and other vital infrastructure to Wall Street, wealthy campaign contributors, even foreign governments. The reality is that Trump's plan to privatize our nation's infrastructure is an old idea that has never worked and never will work.
SANDERS: Well, we know nothing about Dr. Jackson's vision for the VA. But what concerns me is that, right now in Washington, we have a family called the Koch brothers--with a few of their other billionaire friends--their view has been we have got to privatize, privatize, and privatize. And Dr. Shulkin [the previous DVA chief], who Trump fired this week, said the reason for his firing is that he resisted privatization of the Veterans Administration. I work very closely with the major veterans organizations, and what they say is they want to strengthen the VA, not dismember it, not privatize it.
Q: Well, the White House says, at this time, they have no intent to privatize the VA.
SANDERS: They have been putting more money into the private sector with VA money. I do not believe them on that issue. I think they are listening to the Koch brothers. And I think that that is a very, very bad idea.
Stein: "Charter schools are not better than public schools--and in many cases they are far worse. They cherry-pick their students so they can show better test scores. The treasure of our public schools system has been assaulted by the process of privatization."
Clinton: Does not like voucher programs. While she does support school choice as it exists as a form of public education, Clinton has always been opposed to allowing public funds to be used toward private and religious schools.
Q: Should the federal government establish Common Core as a nationwide academic standard for high school graduation?
Stein: Replace Common Core with curriculum developed by educators, not corporations, with input from parents and communities.
Trump: "I believe Common Core is a very bad thing. I think that it should be local education."
BS: I am strongly opposed to any voucher system that would re-direct public education dollars to private schools, including through the use of tax credits. In addition, I believe charter schools should be held to the same standards of transparency as public schools, and that these standards should also apply to the non-profit and for-profit entities that organize charter schools.
Q: What are your views on the privatization and contracting out of public services, including school services?
BS: I am strongly opposed to the outsourcing and privatization of public services. The reality is that many private contractors provide jobs with low pay and no benefits with little or no training. In the long-term, in most instances, privatization leads to poor service, high turnover, and an overall increase in taxpayer dollars.
STEIN: We recognize the inspiration provided by space exploration and so we support:
PENCE: Well, there they go again.
KAINE: Go read the book And when Congressman Pence was in Congress, he was the chief cheerleader for the privatization of Social Security. Even after President Bush stopped pushing for it, Congressman Pence kept pushing for it. We're going to stand up against efforts to privatize Social Security. And we'll look for ways to keep it solvent going forward, focusing primarily on the payroll tax cap.
PENCE: All Donald Trump and I have said about Social Security is we're going to meet our obligations to our seniors. That's it.
KAINE: Go read the book.
"The solution to the Great Social Security crisis couldn't be more obvious: Allow every American to dedicate some portion of their payroll taxes to a personal Social Security account that they could own and invest in stocks and bonds. Federal guidelines would make sure that your money is diversified, that it is invested in sound mutual funds or bond funds, and not in emu ranches....Privatization would be good for all of us. Directing Social Security funds into personal accounts invested in real assets would swell national savings, pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into jobs and the economy." (Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p.198-199 & 203 , July 2000)
TRUMP: I never said take the Veterans Administration private. I wouldn't do that. But I do believe, when you're waiting in line for six, seven days, you should never be in a position like that. You go out, you see the doctor, you get yourself taken care of. The V.A. is really almost a corrupt enterprise. So we are going to make it efficient and good. And if it's not good, you're going out to private hospitals, public hospitals, and doctors.
FACT-CHECK: Trump's campaign published a "Veterans Plan" last October. It doesn't call for the VA to be completely privatized, but allows veterans to get care at any non-VA medical center that accepts Medicare. Trump stuck to the idea when he released his "Ten Point Plan To Reform The VA" in July, giving "every veteran the choice to seek care at the VA or at a private service provider of their own choice."
SANDERS: Republicans give a lot of speeches about how much they love veterans. I work with the American Legion, the VFW, the DAV, the Vietnam Vets, and virtually every veterans organization to put together the most comprehensive piece of the veterans legislation in the modern history of America. Every Democrat voted for it; I got two Republicans. That is pathetic. So Republicans talk a good game about veterans, but when it came to put money on the line to protect our veterans, frankly, they were not there. Secretary Clinton is absolutely right, there are people, Koch brothers among others, who have a group called Concerned Veterans of America, funded by the Koch brothers, yes, there are people out there who want to privatize it. We've got to strengthen the V.A. We do not privatize the V.A.
SANDERS: Republicans give a lot of speeches about how much they love veterans. But when it came to put money on the line [in my comprehensive veterans bill], to protect our veterans, frankly, they were not there. There are people, Koch brothers among others, who have a group called Concerned Veterans of America, who want to privatize it.
CLINTON: I'm absolutely against privatizing the V.A. And I am going do everything I can to build on the reforms that Senator Sanders and others in Congress have passed to try to fix what's wrong with the V.A. There are a lot of issues about wait times and services that have to be fixed because our veterans deserve nothing but the best. Yes, let's fix the V.A., but we will never let it be privatized, and that is a promise.
Clinton argues we can simply expand the Affordable Care Act to achieve universal coverage, which we view as impossible. Sanders is on target with his new Medicare-for-all proposal. However, by preserving the illusion that the ACA is a "step in the right direction," Sanders misses the point that the current U.S. health care system under the ACA is unique among industrialized nations because it treats health care as a commodity rather than a public good.
As a result of this bipartisan assault, we have not had a recovery by any measure. One in two Americans remain in or near poverty including half of children in public schools. One in three seniors relies on Social Security to stay afloat. Wages are stagnant or declining, and real unemployment is nearly 10%, twice as high as the official rate. Forty-three million current and former students are locked in debt. Thirty-three million Americans are still uninsured, and up to a million more Americans will be thrown off food stamps (SNAP) this year, unbelievably, because they can't find work.
CLINTON: I fully support Social Security, and will defend it against continuing Republican efforts to privatize it.
Q: Do you want to expand it?
CLINTON: I want to enhance the benefits for the poorest recipients of Social Security.
SANDERS: When the Republicans in the Congress and some Democrats were talking about cutting Social Security and benefits for disabled veterans, for the so-called chained CPI, I q founded a caucus called the Defending Social Security Caucus. When you have millions of seniors in this country trying to get by--and I don't know how they do on $13,000 a year--you don't cut Social Security, you expand it. And the way you expand it is by lifting the cap on taxable incomes so that you do away with the absurdity of a millionaire paying the same amount into the system as somebody making $118,000. You do that, Social Security is solvent until 2061 and you can expand benefits.
The argument being used to cut Social Security is that because we have a significant deficit problem and a $14 trillion national debt, we just can't afford to maintain Social Security benefits. This argument is false. Social Security, because it is funded by the payroll tax, not the US Treasury, has not contributed one nickel to our deficit.
Unfortunately, Congress has been discussing harmful cuts to Social Security as part of an overall scheme to balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the sick, the children, and working families. That is wrong, it is unconscionable, and it must not happen
CHRISTIE: He's complaining about the lying and stealing. The lying and stealing has already occurred. The trust fund is filled with IOU's. We can't fix the problem just by ending Congress' retirement, that's worth about, "this" much [gesturing a small amount]. I don't disagree with ending Congress' retirement program, [but] we need to go at the fundamental problem, and the fundamental problem is that this system is broken. It has been stolen from. We have been lied to, and we need a strong leader to tell the truth and fix it.
Stein: I'm not aware of any--and I am aware of lots of miserable examples of privatization--everything from prisons to the military, public transportation, judicial services, social services--privatization is an enormous step backwards. On healthcare we would save $400 billion a year if we switched to single payer--to a fully non-privatized health insurance system--with health delivery the same, but payment via public insurance. Another great example is municipal energy systems--public systems costs less, are more responsive, do faster work, and consumers can direct their energy choices. We could then make good choices for consumers and for the planet. On every front public systems are outdoing private companies.
Stein: Public education is another example where there has been a complete scam [regarding privatization]--charter schools are not better than public schools--and in many cases they are far worse. They cherry-pick their students so they can show better test scores. The treasure of our public schools system has been assaulted by the process of privatization.
Stein: [We've tried privatization] in everything from prisons to the military--the military-industrial complex is a poster child against privatization--where contractors' needs become the prime mover of the budget.
OnTheIssues: I think you mean such as how in Iraq, support functions such as transportation and meals were provided by private contractors, while in Vietnam and earlier , those same functions were performed by uniformed soldiers, and that the numbers of soldiers were hence artificially reduced?
Stein: I agree completely
STEIN: There are groups and key activists who really understand the necessity of having a political voice. The presidential debate is going to frame people's thinking, for better or worse. And we want to be in there fighting. And it may come in through the alternative media channels. It may come in through social media. But that's how we successfully fought back privatization of the internet.
Q: I don't think you accomplished that; there's a big division amongst monopolies on this question: the Googles and the Netflixes--there's very big sections of capital.
STEIN: But it wasn't going to happen without us. It was really important. And FCC got some 4 million letters, which were, like, 99% to preserve net neutrality. We have the numbers. What we don't have is the conviction and the infrastructure to use that power. And what we want to do in our campaign is to flick that switch in our brains from powerlessness to powerfulness.
BIDEN: We will not privatize it. If we had listened to Romney and the congressman during the Bush years, imagine where all those seniors would be now if their money had been in the market. Their ideas are old, and their ideas are bad.
A: Social Security needs to be protected. People have put into Social Security--it is not an entitlement program in that sense. It is not a free lunch, not a government handout--it's a return on what people have put into it. It's critical to elders--their resources are being drained. Debt among elders is skyrocketing--we can hardly afford to trim back Social Security as would happen in a privatized system. We would challenge the very notion that Social Security is in crisis mode warranting messing with its foundations. It's not in crisis at all.
Q: Do you support raising the cap on Social Security deductions, above the current limit of $106,000?
A: The cap could be lifted to ensure that Social Security should be solvent m without question forever.
One of the things that drove people out of New Jersey in the past decade was high property taxes. In 2010, together, we capped them. The 2% cap has worked. In these past two years, property tax growth has been the lowest in two decades.
But the job is not finished. Property taxes are still too high. So today, I ask for you to join me in enacting a new property tax relief initiative that tackles the root causes that are driving up property taxes in the first place.
This payroll tax holiday concept originally started with conservative Republicans. These are the same people who either want to make significant cuts in Social Security or else they want to privatize Social Security entirely. Here is the point: They understand that if we divert funding that is supposed to go into the Social Security trust fund, which is what this payroll tax holiday does, that is a lot of money not going into the trust fund.
What the President and others are saying is not to worry because that money will be covered by the general fund. That is a very bad and dangerous precedent. Up until now, what Social Security has been about is 100% funding from payroll contributions, not from the general tax base.
The funding of education is clearly at a crisis point. Years of neglect, fiscal mismanagement, and promotion of privatization have combined with a budget shortfall to seriously threaten the viability of our public education system. If we tilt toward privatization, it will produce a stratified collection of schools that will make education more expensive, separate schools from their communities, and lead inevitably to the abandonment of the concept of equal access to education. Party leaders are now actively promoting charter school encroachment.
| Using Social Security taxes for private accounts | |
|---|---|
| AARP | Opposes |
| Richard Tarrant | No response |
| Bernard Sanders | Opposes |
A: As Vermont’s Congressman I have vigorously opposed President Bush’s efforts to privatize Social Security. Social Security is the most successful anti-poverty program in history. We must strengthen it, not destroy it. Despite the President’s rhetoric, Social Security is NOT going bankrupt. By repealing Bush’s tax cuts for the very rich, and making some minor changes to the funding of the Social Security program, Social Security will be able to pay out every penny owed to every eligible beneficiary for the indefinite future. I oppose privatization plans that would drain money from Social Security and I oppose raising the retirement age or cuts to promised benefits.
[In addition to shoring up Social Security for the long term], I say it’s high time to separate Social Security from the general treasury. It is time to lock-box it and throw away the key.
The rich will scream. Only the top 1% of people-those with a net worth of $10 million or more-would be affected by my plan. The other 99% would get deep reductions in heir federal income taxes.
My proposal would also allow us to entirely repeal the 55% federal inheritance tax. The inheritance tax is a particularly lousy tax because it can often be a double tax. If you put the money into trust for your children, you pay the inheritance tax upon your death. When the trust matures and your children go to use it, they’re taxed again. It’s the worst.
Some will say that my plan is unfair to the extremely wealthy. I say it is only reasonable to shift the burden to those most able to pay. The wealthy actually would not suffer severe repercussions. The 14.25% net-worth tax would be offset by repeal of the 55% inheritance-tax liability.
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