Securing Your Retirement

Chris believes that every American should be able to retire with dignity and security. For years, Social Security has provided a lifeline alongside hard-earned pensions and private savings. Yet as the radical right and big corporations waged war against unions, the prevalence of pension plans has fallen drastically, greatly increasing Social Security’s importance in retirement, which provides a reliable source of earned income, lifting an estimated 22 million seniors out of poverty during any given year and providing general retirement security for millions more.

But despite this success, Social Security is under attack from the right, who see one of the most successful social welfare systems in history as another obstacle in their path toward enriching big corporations and the wealthy. Republican administrations have cut taxes on corporations and the rich, including through the 1983 payroll tax income cap (which exempts the richest Americans from payroll taxes that fund Social Security). The radical right would gladly throw more seniors out on the street by raising the legal retirement age and have even tried to privatize Social Security altogether.

In Congress, Chris is fighting hard to protect and expand Social Security, which is so critical to the economic security every retired American has earned. He supports legislation to shore up this program for future generations, and thinks that the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which adjusts the value of Social Security payments based on inflation, needs to be measured better to make sure that we fully capture cost-of-living for retirees. Moreover, Chris believes that a common-sense solution to increase Social Security’s available funds is to have the ultra-rich finally pay their fair share in payroll taxes, which are currently capped at $160,200 in annual income. Ending this handout would give the program a nearly $100 billion annual increase in funding, a massive increase that would help secure millions of Americans’ retirements and keep Social Security on a steady footing for generations to come.