Mark Dayton on Social Security Democratic Governor; previously Senator

People shouldn’t have access to withholdings; too risky

Opposes privatization of social security

Mark Dayton today pledged to fight to keep Social Security a safe harbor for retirees, disabled workers and surviving family members and proposed eliminating the “motherhood penalty” to protect women. Rod Grams’ plan to dismantle Social Security is fiscal piracy, Dayton said, and ignores the basic dynamics of the marketplace. The plan:
• Opposes privatization of social security. Because Social Security is a “pay as you go” system, any privatization effort would exacerbate the solvency problem by withdrawing dollars from the system.
• Puts Social Security Trust Funds in a Lockbox.
• Strengthens Social Security by paying down the national debt.
• Eliminates the “motherhood penalty” and increases benefits for widows. Dayton proposes crediting workers with earnings for up to five years spent out of the workforce for child rearing. Dayton also proposes increasing the widow benefit to at least 75 percent of the combined couple’s benefit to insure a fair cost of living.

Keep Social Security intact

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.