REP. ANDREWS MEETS WITH LOCAL AARP MEMBERS TO ADDRESS CONCERNS ABOUT  PRESIDENT'S SOCIAL SECURITY PROPOSAL FOR PRIVATE INVESTMENT ACCOUNTS

On Thursday, February 24, 2005, I joined members of the AARP in Cherry Hill, NJ to hear their concerns as they voiced their opposition to the President's proposed social security plan. At the gathering, 240 local members of AARP acknowledged that the Social Security Program needed to be strengthened. However, the AARP members expressed to me their views on why they oppose President Bush's plan which would allow some Americans to invest a portion of their payroll taxes into a private investment account. Many members, as do I, believe that the President's plan should be exposed for the many risks it imposes on future generations of social security recipients. I too recognize the need to reform the current Social Security program to prevent it from insolvency. However, I believe that the program should and can be preserved by taking the following initiatives.

First, the way to save social security is to leave all of the money paid into the social security program in social security.  Americans know that the primary problem with the current social security program is that soon there will not be enough workers supporting the abundant number of retirees in our country. To defer the day that Social Security's expenditures exceed its revenues, we should put away a portion of that money for the days when social security taxes will not cover those benefits.

Secondly, we should halt the raid on the Social Security Trust Fund. In order to save the social security surplus so it is only used for social security,  we need to restrain federal spending and repeal or "rollback" all or most of the President's tax cuts.

Finally, we should return to a responsible federal budget so as not to exasperate the federal deficit any further. That is why in November 2004, I voted to oppose the bill signed into law by President Bush which increased the ceiling on the national debt.  Only when we return our nation's "books" back to fiscal responsibility and stop extending our credit line can our economy flourish so that we may continue to protect one of our nation's priority programs, social security.
 
Rest assured, in the months ahead, I will stand with our nation's lawmakers to urge the President to reduce the country's unnecessary and wasteful spending so that all of the tax money that the government collects for social security remains in the social security program for future generations of Americans.

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