14th Congressional candidates jump into Social Security debate
Residents of Aurora's Provena Fox Knoll retirement community ushered in the 75th anniversary of the federal government's largest program Tuesday as 14th Congressional District candidates wrestled with the future of Social Security.
Incumbent Democrat Bill Foster joined AARP representatives at the retirement home to pledge a fight against the privatization of Social Security and a defense of the funds against any raid to balance the national deficit.
With some residents of the community topping 100 years of age, Foster contrasted the creation of Social Security in the era of the Great Depression to fears about the programs solvency following the recent recession.
"During the Great Depression there was a lot of human misery," Foster said. "We had millions of people not being able to eat or eating out of garbage dumps. That is not happening now. And the reason it's not happening now, to a large extent, is because we have safety nets in place."
Foster said he is "absolutely opposed" to any privatization of Social Security.
"Privatization means cuts to benefits as well as risky returns," Foster said. "Retirees need an income that they can depend on."
Not cutting Social Security benefits may be one of the few areas Foster's Republican opponent Randy Hultgren can agree with him. Hultgren's campaign issued a statement saying the main attack on Social Security right now is Democrats spending beyond the country's means.
"I strongly believe we need to preserve and protect Social Security, which is a sacred contract between workers and the federal government and must not be broken," Hultgren said in a written statement. "I am strongly opposed to any cuts in benefits for current or future beneficiaries and am profoundly disappointed that Washington politicians like Bill Foster continue to imperil this critical program with their out of control spending."
Green Party candidate Dan Kairis said the rhetoric of the two major parties hasn't convinced him Foster or Hultgren will do anything to protect Social Security if it doesn't somehow directly benefit them.
"If we really wanted to save Social Security, we would put all elected officials into the Social Security system and have that as their only retirement," Kairis said. "They shouldn't have their own private pension."
Kairis said he's particularly wary of Republican plans to privatize parts of Social Security given how the leaders of major financial institutions always seem to make money no matter how bad the economy gets.
"The Republicans are good for making money for their buddies, not so good for making money for regular people," Kairis said. "Privatization is good in some circumstances, but for a program like Social Security the government does a much better job."
Doug Marks is running as a write-in after losing his spot as a Libertarian on the ballot. He said he doesn't have a problem with Social Security as a safety net, or even as a government program. However, Marks believes state governments could better manage the funds. Even then, Social Security should only be a last resort for retirees who might've made poor decisions with their money.
"If the government believes you have to have a retirement account, then that account should be managed by the individual," Marks said. "You earned that money. You worked for it. The problem now is those in power have the ability to spend that money on whatever they want."
Foster said right now, it's not clear that there is any imminent need to make any changes to Social Security. He said the fund can currently pay out full benefits until about the year 2037. That gives Congress nearly 30 years to solve the problem, Foster said.
"There's nothing that you can do to fix this that won't make some slice of people unhappy," Foster said. "What you might get is a list of small changes. Many small changes are better than one giant thing. All we have to do is bend the cost curve by one small amount (increase the contribution level), or decrease the amount of benefits by a very small amount."