Quotes About Social Security

#1. If you're closing in on age 62 and intend to apply for a former spouse's Social Security benefit, don't remarry. You have to be single at the time you apply.

Jean Chatzky

#2. We need to expand Social Security to prevent the looming retirement crisis, and we can do it simply by asking billionaires to pay their fair share.

Robert Reich

#3. I found that I was getting a warm reception for my message of freeing you from the income tax, releasing you from Social Security, ending the insane war on drugs, restoring gun rights, and reducing the federal government to just its constitutional functions.

Harry Browne

#4. Of course the Republicans have long wanted to privatize Social Security and destroy it. But Social Security has been the most important and valuable social program in the history of the United States.

Bernie Sanders

#5. I think it's very important not to confuse the importance of dealing with Social Security in the long term with these short-term deficit reduction challenges. They're different issues.

Jacob Lew

#6. Not too many years ago, both parties acknowledged that our entitlement commitments were a sword hanging over our heads. But when President George W. Bush tried to begin discussions on Social Security reform, Democrats ridiculed and demonized him and told seniors he was after their nest eggs.

David Limbaugh

#7. Social Security got passed because John D. Rockefeller was sick of having to take money out of his profits to pay for his workers' pension funds. Why do that, when you can just let the government take money from the workers?

Aaron Swartz

#8. Every program that ever helped working people, from rural electrification to Medicare, was enacted by liberals over the opposition of conservatives. When people tell me they don't like liberals, I ask, "Do you like Social Security? If so, then shut up!"

George McGovern

#9. The administration's reckless plan doesn't do one thing to ensure the long term security of social security, rather it undermines our economy. We need a budget and a fiscal policy that reflects the values and interests of America and restores fiscal discipline.

Debbie Stabenow

#10. Every advance in this half-century-Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education, one after another-came with the support and leadership of American Labor.

Jimmy Carter

#11. The president's claim that Social Security is going broke is misleading at best. The sky is not falling, although there is no doubt that the system needs to be strengthened.

Grace Napolitano

#12. Social Security, a critically important, great program which does serve as the cornerstone of support for senior citizens, now faces challenges that threaten its long-term stability and well-being. The facts are there. The facts are crystal clear.

Bill Frist

#13. Mark my words, there will be an intensive effort to privatize Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid.

Bernie Sanders

#14. We need to strengthen and save Social Security for today's workers. If we don't act now, this system, born out of the New Deal, will become a bad deal.

Mitch McConnell

#15. This is my first term. I was told it was going to be an exciting term, and a lot of things would be done, and I cannot think about something more exciting than save Social Security.

Virginia Foxx

#16. Tradition is a prop for social security.

Walter J. Phillips

#17. What we need is to make our senior citizens feel secure once more with their own Social Security and Medicare. But going forward, we need to personalize that program in a way that the government can't go in and raid it any more.

Sharron Angle

#18. What we should be trying to do is to encourage people to establish private retirement accounts and help them take pressure off the Social Security system.

Dennis Moore

#19. Most people understand life expectancy has changed since Social Security started in 1937 when folks lived to be 59 years old. Today, they live to be 77 years old.

Jack Kingston

#20. I don't want to get people nervous falling off their chairs, but Social Security is a socialist program. It's a program by which the United States government has said that when you get old you should have a steady source of income.

Bernie Sanders

#21. 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.

Sander Levin

#22. We need to phase Medicare and Social Security out in favor of something privatized.

Sharron Angle

#23. Social Security is a program that should be strengthened and preserved for future generations.

Diane Watson

#24. If you can't even acknowledge that you have to fix Social Security, that's not a very good starting point.

Rob Portman

#25. I will fight like the dickens to protect Social Security.

Xavier Becerra

#26. Because of my own experience with market fluctuation, I recognize the great risks one takes on investments. This converts the Social Security safety net into a risky proposition many cannot afford to take.

Grace Napolitano

#27. Carli Fiorina thinks the answer for Social Security and Medicare is ... zero-based budgeting! Christ. People of a certain age are all banging their heads on the table right now.

Ted Cruz

#28. While it is clear that we need to make some adjustments to protect Social Security for the long term, it is disingenuous to say that the trust fund is facing a crisis.

Carl Levin

#29. The process by which wants are now synthesized is a potential source of economic instability. Production and therewith employment and social security are dependent on an inherently unstable process of consumer debt creation. This may one day falter.

John Kenneth Galbraith

#30. The rule for effective governance is simple. It is one Ronald Reagan knew by heart. And one that he successfully employed with Social Security and the Cold War. When there is a problem, you fix it. That is the job you have been sent to do and you cannot wait for someone else to do it for you.

Chris Christie

#31. I want to protect and preserve social security and Medicare.

Dean Heller

#32. We have got to cut the spending. We have got to fix Medicare and Social Security. And actually, if we don't cut spending, this country is already broke. We are going off the financial cliff: the big cliff that is going to cause a total economic collapse of America.

Paul Broun

#33. I think changing the Democratic Party platform [at the convention] is a great place to start. It should include expanding Social Security, a $15 minimum wage, and breaking up too-big-to-fail banks on Wall Street - among other Sanders priorities.

Ben Wikler

#34. I am staunchly committed to ensuring the long-term solvency of Social Security and preserving full benefits for Americans who have spent their entire working lives contributing to this program.

Sue Kelly

#35. Unchecked, government social programs are a security threat because they weaken the ultimate line of defense: the free-born citizen whose responsibilities are not subcontracted to the government.

Mark Steyn

#36. As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it
along the lines that President Bush proposed.

John McCain

#37. The true source of economic security is self-reliance and economic freedom - Social Security is immoral because it subverts both.

Don Watkins

#38. America should meet its obligations in the form of Social Security, Medicare, our ability to pay our military, legally binding legislation that allows unemployment compensation, the judiciary, the federal court system, the federal prison system, all those kinds of things have to be paid for.

Bill Johnson

#39. what economic benefit smokers provide for nonsmokers (they die earlier, leaving more Social Security and pension benefits for the rest of us),

Charles Wheelan

#40. As I think all Americans understand on both sides of the aisle, the Social Security system as it is structured today is a pay-as-you-go system.

John Shadegg

#41. Social Security is a widely popular program because the individual has been deceived by the Statist to believe that the government has been prudently and diligently managing his accumulated pension investment in his Social Security account, which he presumes to be funded by his own payroll taxes.

Mark Levin

#42. 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.

James Roosevelt

#43. While the feds ... leave Social Security off their books, the government's obligation to make benefit payments to current and near-term Social Security recipients is certainly no less real than its obligation to pay interest on its Treasury bonds.

Laurence Kotlikoff

#44. One of the great threats to our national security is social cohesion. If people no longer believe that you can start out anywhere and end up at the top successfully in America, that the American dream is part of the past, I think that erodes a sense of belief and confidence in our nation.

Joel Klein

#45. Never voted to spend one penny of Social Security money.

Ron Paul

#46. Newt Gingrich says he wants to get rid of Social Security. Who is more qualified to give this country financial advice than a guy who ran up a half-million dollar bill at Tiffany?

David Letterman

#47. The only way to save Social Security is to raise the retirement age.

Rand Paul

#48. We know that Medicare is set to go bankrupt in 2024 with no action, and social security is set to be insolvent by 2037.

Joe Heck

#49. The money that goes into Social Security is not the government's money. it's your money. You paid for it.

Mitch McConnell

#50. When you run ads saying you are going to save social security, my friend, that's all hat and no cattle.

John McCain

#51. Social Security is not just another government spending program. It is a promise from generation to generation.

Hank Johnson

#52. We do ourselves a disservice when some of us cave to the myth that Social Security somehow drives the deficit.

Martin O'Malley

#53. The IRS is currently considering a rule that would make it easier for tax preparers to disclose the private information contained in tax returns - including name, address, Social Security number, employer, income, and charitable donations.

Melissa Bean

#54. We must carefully consider card security solutions, such as adding photographs or machine-readable electronic strips, so to prevent further breaches of individual privacy that could result from changes to the design of Social Security Cards.

Ron Lewis

#55. Let us be clear about our choice. When we raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, no one dies. When we cut Social Security and Medicare, people die.

Annabel Park

#56. Research by James Poterba at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finds that the wealth of the U.S.'s elderly is highly skewed. About half of retirees have little or no financial wealth when they retire and depend almost entirely on Social Security for their income.

Greg Ip

#57. Not only is privatizing Social Security not the solution to Social Security, it would exacerbate the problem.

Shelley Berkley

#58. With or without a Social Security fix, Americans don't have enough assets to retire on. There has to be a much larger debate.

Frank Keating

#59. A budget matters to people who worry about protecting and saving critical programs like Medicare and Social Security. A budget matters to younger workers who fear that more and more money will be taken from their paychecks to fund another generation's spending spree.

Susan Brooks

#60. Mr. Speaker, Americans want, need, and rightfully expect Congress to protect them from the prying eyes of identity thieves and give them back control of their Social Security numbers and personal health information.

Luis Gutierrez

#61. If you add up all the federal and you look at the disability and the unemployment and the Social Security and the state, my tax rate's 62, 63 percent. So I've got to make some decisions on what I'm going to do.

Phil Mickelson

#62. Indeed, I think most Americans now know that in 1935 when Social Security was created, there were some 42 Americans working for every American collecting retirement benefits.

John Shadegg

#63. The promise of Social Security was reflected in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's inter-generational compact that rewards hard work and provides retirement security.

Christine Pelosi

#64. Did folks know that the tax to fund the program [Social Security] only hits salaries up to $110,000? That means that if you make a million bucks, about 90% of your salary is tax free when it comes to the payroll tax that funds Soc Sec. That ain't right.

Jared Bernstein

#65. Security is a big concern on the social web. People are going to try to destroy social media just like they are trying to breach data in other areas.

Sandy Carter

#66. I support voluntary personal retirement accounts for Social Security. It should be people's free choice.

Sharron Angle

#67. The pupil's imagination is 'schooled' to accept service in place of value. Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work.

Ivan Illich

#68. We have to get control of our borders. You can only do that if you make companies obey the law and not hire undocumented or illegals. They can only do that is if they have a Social Security Card that has biometrics so they know whether the person is legal or not.

Michael Bloomberg

#69. By combining a popular hatred of the class of entrepreneurs with the blow already given to social security by the violent and arbitrary disturbance of contract, ... governments are fast rendering impossible a continuance of the social and economic order of the nineteenth century.

John Maynard Keynes

#70. If social stability goes pear-shaped, you have a choice between anarchy and dictatorship. Most people will opt for more security, even if they have to give up some personal freedom.

Margaret Atwood

#71. Our society has changed in unforeseeable ways since Social Security was created. For example, we are living longer, healthier, and more productive lives and while this is all great news, this has also placed added pressure on America's retirement system.

Norm Coleman

#72. private philanthropy is no substitution for hard-fought battles over labour laws and social security, in part because philanthropy can be retracted on a whim, while elected officials, at least in theory, have citizens to answer to.

Linsey McGoey

#73. These are the now-endangered markers of a civilized society: legally ordained minimum wages, child labor laws, workers safety and compensation laws, pure foods and safe drugs, Social Security, Medicare and rules that promote competitive markets over monopolies and cartels.

Bill Moyers

#74. There are many commitments I have made for reducing poverty. One is to reform social security. Social security reaches only 44 percent of Mexicans. One of my goals is to give social security to all the people.

Enrique Pena Nieto

#75. Counting obligations under Medicare and Social Security, the real debt of the United States is more than 10 times the reported national debt.

Addison Wiggin

#76. The life expectancy is much longer today than it was when Social Security was created.

Virginia Foxx

#77. This is nothing new. We saw this with the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Right Act - constitutional challenges were brought to all three of these monumental pieces of legislation.

Stephanie Cutter

#78. Under the Bush plan, Social Security gets weaker, not stronger.

Richard Neal

#79. Social Security has not contributed to the deficit problem.

Kent Conrad

#80. We're an air bag society that wants guarantees on everything that we buy. We want to be able to take everything back and get another one. We want a 401-k plan and Social Security.

James Hillman

#81. The retirement age needs to be raised. A portion of Social Security ought to be privatized, if not all. And there probably needs to be some means testing. It's a Ponzi scheme that's not sustainable.

Gary Johnson

#82. While Social Security faces some long-term challenges, the system is not in crisis.

Chaka Fattah

#83. If the economy is strained, then Social Security, like the rest of the government, will be, too.

Mark Dayton

#84. Social security isn't a ponzi scheme. It's not bankrupting us. It's not an outrage. It is working.

Rachel Maddow

#85. But I'm saying we are loosing the people who are going to pay my social security. And that bothers me.

Joycelyn Elders

#86. Specifically, I am concerned about the long-term condition of Social Security. I am committed to ensuring that current beneficiaries and those nearing retirement face no reduction in benefits, while preserving this vital program for future generations.

Cliff Stearns

#87. Republicans are suggesting that you take your retirement money and invest it in the stock market to take care of yourself but that leaves you with choices that you may not know anything about. The purpose of social Security is that you don't fall through the crack and find yourself destitute.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz

#88. Just as welfare was said to "cause poverty," the experts may soon announce that Medicare causes baldness and that Social Security is a risk factor for osteoporosis: the correlations are undeniable.

Barbara Ehrenreich

#89. In the early 1980s, I burned my Social Security card at the New Orleans Investment Conference in protest of the state pension system.

Mark Skousen

#90. If we didn't have Social Security, our seniors would live mostly in poverty. You'd have another 18 million people in poverty.

Michael Moore

#91. Our constituents paid into Social Security, and they want it paid back to them when they retire. Cutting Social Security benefits that Americans have earned should always be a last resort.

Dennis Cardoza

#92. I believe it's time to put our best ideas on the table and work toward a bipartisan solution, with the single goal of leaving the Social Security system stronger than we found it.

Chris Chocola

#93. The only real security for social well-being is the free exercise of men's minds.

Harold Laski

#94. The debate over Social Security should not be about how much we can cut from the program in order to balance the federal budget. The debate over Social Security should not be about raising the retirement age or limiting benefits. The debate over Social Security should be about retirement security.

Sherrod Brown

#95. You can be sure that I will always consider how changes to Social Security will impact people with disabilities when considering the various proposals offered for reform.

Steve Israel

#96. We need to preserve programs like Social Security and Medicare for our seniors of today and tomorrow. But we need to strengthen both Social Security and Medicare to make sure these programs are still available for future generations.

Joni Ernst

#97. Those life experiences that helped shaped my political beliefs are with me in every position I take and every vote that I cast - whether it be in favor of comprehensive immigration reform, strengthening Social Security and Medicare, or improving our nation's education system.

Mark Takano

#98. The reason is that Chile is the brightest spot in Latin America. It has very fast growth, low unemployment. It privatized its Social Security system, which we in USA were unable to do.

Allan H. Meltzer

#99. I go to social media, check out my granddaughter's new boyfriend, but the Department of Homeland Security can't figure out they need to be tracking they jihadi web sites?

Carly Fiorina

#100. Our fiat currency is under increasing stress with our large and growing trade deficits. We have a federal deficit that is calculated in the trillions when we take into account the net present value of the future Social Security and Medicaid obligations we are creating today.

George Noory