Bernie Sanders Tells Jeb Bush To Go And Pound Sand

By Tool

Today Senator and Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders told Jeb Bush to go pound sand on social security.  In no uncertain terms Sanders reiterated his stance that "NO we will not cut Social Security."  This has been Sanders stance that payments from Social Security should be increased by raising the FICA cap.

What that means is that if you are making 118,000 dollars a year, you are paying into the system at the same rate as a guy making 10,000,000 a year.  It bears repeating that Social Security is not in crisis and that merely raising the FICA cap for individuals making 1,000,000 or even 250,000 a year then the program that has lifted generations out of poverty in their old age will be solvent for future generations.

I have a hard time understanding what world Gov. Bush and his billionaire backers live in,” Bernie said after Jeb Bush told an interviewer that he thought the Social Security retirement age should be raised.

“We need to look over the horizon and begin to phase in (an increase in the retirement age over an extended period of time),” said Bush, “going from 65 to 68 or 70.” With those words, Bush seemed to suggest that the current retirement age is 65. It is currently 66, and is scheduled to rise to 67 for people born in 1959 and afterwards.

“It is unacceptable to ask construction workers, truck drivers, nurses and other working-class Americans to work until they are 68 to 70 years old before qualifying for full Social Security benefits,” Bernie said in response this week, adding:

“At a time when more than half of the American people have less than $10,000 in savings, it would be a disaster to cut Social Security benefits by raising the retirement age.”

“Jeb Bush’s plan to raise the retirement age is just a continuation of the war that is being waged by the Republicans against working-class Americans in order to reward billionaires on Wall Street,” Bernie said, noting:

“When the average Social Security benefit is just $1,328 a month, and more than one-third of our senior citizens rely on Social Security for virtually all of their income, our job must be to expand benefits, not cut them.”

So who else wants to deliver a House and Senate that will allow Senator Bernie Sanders to raise social security payouts to seniors who live on starvation wages? I do. Jeb Bush can go pound sand.

Sun Jun 07, 2015 at  7:34 PM PT: Forgot to include: Bernie said...

“I have introduced legislation to do just that,” he concluded.
(raise SS payments)