Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) has teamed up with Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) to ask their congressional colleagues to sign a letter pledging to vote against any cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits.
Grayson appeared on Take Action News and talked about the letter with host David Shuster and producer Daniel Marans. Marans asked Grayson about the reactions of Americans if benefits were cut, and Grayson replied that Americans would be marching in the streets of Washington, D.C. and state capitols:
MARANS: I think we need to take this eventually to acts of civil disobedience, and getting arrested at the capitol and White House, doing things to stop this at all cost. If it came to that would you support that?
GRAYSON: Listen it will come to that if they actually go through with cuts. If they go through with cuts, you’ll see people pouring into the streets. Pouring into the streets of Washington, D.C. and every other capital, state capital, and major city in the country. This is going to be intolerable for people, this is in fact a matter of life and death in their own lives. And what’s the point? The Social Security Administration has almost $2 trillion in the bank. $2 trillion. That’s a program that’s operated at profit virtually every single year since it started 80 years ago. And under the current law, under current assumptions, under current projections, that’s a system that can pay out every single benefit required under current law for the next 25 years, and minor tweaks would make that forever.
Listen to it:
Listen to our national conference call with Alan Grayson that happened on March 6th.
Those who want to see benefits cut are well off and see it as they should not give money to help others.They do not see that hard working people are who build america though low paid most of the time.They do not see they would not be so well off if not for the hard working but low paid people of America.It’s called giving back and doing your part for America.
ue ot WEP (Windfal Elimination Provision) I cannot collect Social Security and due to GPO (Government Pension Offset) my wife as a widow cannot collect my Social Security. In all we have 18 years of contributions into Soc. Sec. that we forfeited but Mitt Romney will collect his Soc. Sec. and hedge fund investors will get their’s as well. How come there is not a Soc. Sec. ‘means test’ for people of substantial means and leave the rest of us alone?
My wife and I retired to Thailand last year when we found out that it was a rigged game all along. Regards from–two expats
These congressmen are clueless if they think there is 2 trillion “in the bank.” Our government spends the surpluses from the SSA trust and “owes” the trust that 2 trillion. We don’t have that money laying around and will have to start paying it back when the rest of the baby boomers retire and there are more payments coming out of the trust than are coming in from workers witholdings. Thats why everyone other than these two guys are trying to figure out how to either decrease benefits or increase the age before receiving benefits.
Jim, you are totally correct but it could be said slightly differently. Our government borrowed the social security trust fund money and spent it on whatever they felt like.
At the same time, repayment of the trust fund is guaranteed by the same “full faith and credit” that guarantees any other treasury bill.
Grayson and Tokano are perfectly aware that the scuzballs in congress are looking for any way they can find to welsh on the deal. Every dollar that they can avoid repaying to the social security trust fund is one more dollar available for corporate welfare and defense spending.
But stating it the way Grayson and Tokano do eliminates the pretense that social security has to be cut. The guys trying to welsh definitely do not want to acknowledge the “trust fund” because that makes it clear that the “full faith and credit” thingy is a lie..