Social Security
I am committed to addressing the challenges facing Social Security, sustaining and protecting the program for current beneficiaries and future retirees. No program does more to ensure that every American can have a decent retirement.
Many seniors live on a fixed income, and I know how important their Social Security checks are for their medicines and day-to-day living expenses. Based on current forecasts, Social Security can pay full benefits until 2030, after which it will only be able to pay 75 percent of its promised benefits. In 2011, Social Security saw its expenditures exceed its revenues for the first time in decades.
While the system is not facing a crisis tomorrow, it will face some substantial structural problems in the not-too-distant future. And every year we delay addressing the issue, the solutions become more expensive and more painful.
Bipartisan Social Security Commission Act
The government must honor the promises it has made to those who have retired or are reaching retirement soon. I support legislation that would make changes to Social Security for the next generation of recipients, those under 55, while leaving the current system in place for those who have planned their retirements around it.
I believe a good place to start would be passage of legislation I introduced again this Congress, the Bipartisan Social Security Commission Act. The bill calls for a bipartisan and bicameral commission tasked with recommending reforms to ensure Social Security is solvent for at least 75 years. Congress would then be required to vote up or down on the commission’s recommendations within 60 legislative days.
More on Social Security
Oklahoma Economic Report - Congressman Tom Cole
Perhaps the most daunting issue that we face as Americans is the massive amount of public debt that exists and the rate at which it is growing. Certainly, the staggering number of nearly $18.4 trillion calls for real solutions to change the debt trajectory. In an effort to return our nation to fiscally-firm footing, it’s important to consider how we reached this point while also recognizing the areas where we’ve been successful.
Ada News - Eric Swanson
Lawmakers have floated several proposals for fixing Social Security, such as raising the eligibility age and increasing the income levels subject to Social Security taxes, U.S. Rep. Tom Cole said Thursday.
Cole also said he was optimistic that Congress would find a solution to Social Security’s financial woes.
“I think in the end, the public will force people to the table,” he said.
For decades, Social Security has brought peace of mind to generations of American retirees and disabled citizens. From that first paycheck and onward into every stage of working life, Social Security is an investment program that has served tens of millions of American workers. But as we are all too aware, the program’s ability to keep the same promise to future generations of American workers is in grave danger.
The Oklahoman - Editorial Board
NO, U.S. Rep. Tom Cole isn’t bored and simply looking for a challenge. Instead Cole, R-Moore, says his decision to try to come up with a way to keep Social Security afloat is based on a firm belief that it can be done.
“The problem is it’s easily fixed,” Cole said in an interview last week. “It’s the politics that’s hard.”
The Hill - Rebecca Shabad
A Social Security fund that provides benefits to nearly nine million disabled people is projected to run out by the end of 2016, and a new House rule could cause headaches for majority Republicans during the upcoming push to shore it up.
The rule, which the House passed earlier this month, puts up a procedural roadblock against legislation that would redistribute the payroll tax to replenish the Social Security Disability Insurance Trust Fund.
The Hill - Cristina Marcos
Reps. John Delaney (D-Md.) and Tom Cole (R-Okla.) have introduced a bill to establish a commission to study how Social Security can achieve fiscal solvency.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that Social Security will be unable to pay full benefits by 2031.
Delaney argued that Congress should start reviewing how to maintain Social Security sooner rather than later.
You know election season must be in full swing when "Mediscare" accusations start flying. Unfortunately, the heated rhetoric obscures the most relevant and startling point of all: Medicare will go bankrupt by 2024. This is not speculation or a partisan claim; it is a fact documented in this year's annual report from the Medicare and Social Security Trustees.
Rather than confront this reality and communicate honestly with the American people about options to save the vital program, the Obama campaign has chosen the time-honored tradition of sowing fear and division.