Lee Fisher on Social Security

No benefit cuts; don't raise retirement age

Fisher rejected cutting Social Security benefits and raising the retirement age, although he does want a bipartisan commission to address the entitlement program's long-term fiscal problems.

Although the Bush administration had sought to create private Social Security accounts, Portman said it was "not true" that he supported privatizing the program. Fisher often quotes from a 2007 interview in which Portman called the Bush proposal "very sound."

Portman admonished Fisher to "stop scaring seniors" about Social Security. But he added, "We do need to look at reforming the system" to ensure that the entitlement program survives for future generations

Strengthen, preserve and protect Social Security

I believe we owe it to our senior citizens, the parents who raised us, the men and women who built our state and our country, to ensure they are taken care of in their retirement years.
• Lee will work to strengthen, preserve and protect Social Security for current and future generations as part of the basic guarantee between government and its citizens and will oppose efforts to privatize social security.
• Seniors deserve affordable access to the medications their doctors prescribe. Lee supports the reimportation of safe, FDA-approved medications from Canada, which could save consumers $50 billion over 10 years.
• Vulnerable seniors can be victimized, physically and financially, even by the people who are supposed to be caring for them. Lee worked to protect seniors from fraud and victimization as Ohio's Attorney General.
• As a State Senator in 1986, Lee authored and passed Ohio's Hospice Licensure Law to protect the rights of Ohioans in hospice care.

Reject privatization; don't raise the retirement age.

Some 200 Democratic House and Senate candidates have signed on to a pledge rejecting any effort to privatize or scale back Social Security benefits or raise the retirement age. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee sponsored this pledge among Congressional candidates.