Under the current pay-as-you-go Social Security system, not one person is actually guaranteed benefits.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Since 1935, this has been a pay-as-you-go system, and I always believed when I first started talking about Social Security that there was a little box that had my name on it and it had my benefits for when I retired. That is not true.
Well, let's go back to the original intent of Social Security. It is an insurance contract.
All of us who serve in the House of Representatives and the Senate pay into Social Security.
The money that goes into Social Security is not the government's money. it's your money. You paid for it.
Social Security should have a self-sustaining portion that was funded by contributions from both employers and employees. That's what we know and have known for 70 successful years.
What's lost in this whole debate, unfortunately, is that Social Security is not a giveaway where we take money to give to other people. It's a contract with the government... that's worked for 75 years. It's the most successful government program that we've ever had.
As you know, Social Security functions under the premise that today's workers will help finance benefits for retirees and that these workers will then be supported by the next generation of workers paying into the same system.
Social Security is a promise that we cannot and must not break.
Americans count on the guaranteed benefits they paid for under Medicare.
Through good times and bad, American workers and their families have been able to rely on Social Security to provide guaranteed protection against the loss of earnings due to retirement, disability, or death.