Some questions for Kirk, Hultgren

I applaud recently elected members of Congress, Senator Mark Kirk and Representative Randy Hultgren, for their foresight. Both suggested that members of Congress should be held to the same standards as everyone else.

Will these newly elected Congressmen support a regulation which will place a limitation on how long they may serve in office? While so many workers in our country continue to be unemployed, members of Congress seem to enjoy much political longevity. Wouldn't it be proper that members of Congress find themselves unemployed after an established numbers of years (much like the president)?

Will Senator Kirk and Representative Hultgren support the elimination of the cap on Social Security contributions? The regulation which says that a person's Social Security contributions end when the cap (approximately $107,000) is met appears to mean that people at or below the cap pay 100 percent of their contributions according to their incomes. Meanwhile, those with incomes over the cap will pay a much lower percentage of their income into Social Security because they will pay nothing for income above the cap. Is that the standard Senator Kirk and Representative Hultgren support? Will they support eliminating the cap?

A number of years ago while still employed, I attended a financial planning/retirement seminar. The gentleman who conducted that seminar told us attendees that Social Security would never go broke because “the more income a person had, the more he/she would contribute to Social Security.” That sounded quite logical. But, that seminar presenter did not figure on a cap for contributions. Why does the cap continue to exist?

Richard Kastner

Aurora