As your Representative in Congress, Lisa will work to:

Protect and preserve Social Security.

Social Security's Board of Trustees has predicted that while Social Security currently receives enough payroll taxes to cover its benefit obligations, that situation is only temporary. Starting in about the year 2017, the System will start to pay out more than it takes in, and will have to begin tapping its trust funds in order to pay benefits on time and in full. The amount needed each year from the trust funds to cover benefit obligations will grow from about $70 billion in the early years, to more than $300 billion in the 2030s. By the year 2041, the trust funds will be empty and Social Security will technically be bankrupt.

The System's deteriorating financial condition is due to demographic factors. The "baby boom" generation will begin to retire over the next several decades leaving fewer people in the workforce contributing to Social Security. In fact, over the next 20 years or so, the number of retirees will grow by seventy-three percent while the number of workers will grow by only thirteen percent.

The prospect of Social Security running out of money has prompted Congress and the Administration to begin looking at ways to head off the System's possible bankruptcy. Hearings have been held, Commissions formed and bills introduced. No consensus has emerged yet on what exactly should be done. Suggestions have ranged from fully or partially privatizing the System (letting workers divert all or a portion of their payroll taxes to individual investment accounts), to cutting benefits and increasing taxes, to doing nothing for the time being.

While it is clear that Social Security will face economic pressures over the next several decades, we should not be rushed into making extreme decisions such as cutting benefits, or privatizing the System. Instead, we should look to a variety of smaller steps that over time will produce significant savings. It is important to remember that these smaller steps do not necessarily have to be limited to the Social Security program. For instance, increasing economic growth by only a few percentage points can extend the life of Social Security for several years. Similar improvements in wage growth, inflation and even in the decision of workers to stay in the workforce longer will produce similar economic benefits for Social Security.

Download the entire Why Vote for Lisa Atkins document.

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