Social Security:

Today's Republicans: Mitt Romney: I put in my book a series of proposals on how to get it on sound financial footing so that our kids can count on it, not just our current seniors. I think that Social Security is an essential program and we should change the way we're funding it.i There are one of two ways you can make Social Security work forever. One of course is to raise the retirement age by a year or two. The other is having slower growth in inflating the benefits of higher-income of Social Security recipients. Again, not current recipients but those in their 20s, 30s, 40s and early 50s. Those combined, represent the best course for us to be able to permanently solve our Social Security shortfall. ii Newt Gingrich: Speaker Gingrich has proposed allowing younger workers decades away from retirement to bypass Social Security and instead choose private investment accounts to put their savings in. iii Rick Santorum: The Social Security system, in my opinion, is a flawed design, period. But having said that, the design would work a lot better if we had stable demographic trends. We don't have enough workers to support the retirees. Well, a third of all the young people in America are not in America today because of abortion."iv Senator Santorum has ruled out higher taxes or more deficit spending to help the Social Security system become more solvent, instead advocating for benefit cuts. v Ron Paul: Congressman Paul believes that Social Security is an unconstitutional Ponzi scheme and favors abolishing it.vi Barry Goldwater: Social Security is a contract between the federal government and you. I don't believe in breaking contracts, and neither does the government. And I have never at any time advocated doing away with Social Security.vii I favor a sound Social Security system and I want to see it strengthened. I want to see every participant receive all the benefits this system provides. And I want to see these benefits paid in dollars with real purchasing power. Social Security is a system of basic protection for the aged. In addition, most Americans now participate in private pension plans while many have their own savings and investments. Social Security was never intended to replace these voluntary programs. Its prime purpose was and is to supplement them, to provide a basic floor. I am convinced it can do this job, the job for which it was created. Essentially, protection against need in America depends upon a free economy which produces an

ever-growing abundance and an ever-greater opportunity for all. In this framework, I believe Social Security has a vital and legitimate supporting role." viii Notes: Barry Goldwater voiced concerns about the solvency of Social Security, believing the system to be actuarially unsound, and criticized the Social Security Trust Fund as a "bookkeeping deception," as the money in the fund went straight into the U.S. Treasury and was spent outside the nation's budget.ix In a letter dated from 1952, Goldwater stated that he believed in Social Security and wanted proper and honest administration of it. x Historian Michael Beschloss has attributed the following quote to Barry Goldwater: Perhaps Social Security should be abolished.xi I was not able to find this quote in context, so I am not sure if this is illustrative of Goldwater's position on the matter (I seriously doubt it is, as Goldwater had a habit of uttering off the cuff comments that the press regularly took out of context).

i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi

http://www.issues2000.org/2012/Mitt_Romney_Social_Security.htm http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/mitt-romney-gets-specific-on-social-security-plans/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/newt-gingrich-social-security-alternative_n_1104749.html http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20048724-503544.html http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/santorum-cut-social-security-benefits-now-not-later http://www.ronpaularchive.com/2004/11/social-security-house-of-cards/ http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/302167-1 http://www.4president.org/brochures/goldwater1964brochure.htm See Goldwater, With No Apologies, 167, 195 and Goldwater with Casserly, Goldwater, 160. See Dean, Pure Goldwater, 84. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0205-05.htm