Josh Mandel Quotes

Corporations are reneging on pension obligations. Social Security is under attack.

There are lots of people depending on the government who are good, honest citizens who have worked all their lives.

Privatizing Social Security will take dollars out of young folks' pockets.

You can't be a progressive and be opposed to pension reform.

Government pensions, built into law and mostly protected from stock market vagaries, are the envy of the private sector.

We must ensure that today's seniors' benefits are rock solid and find a solution that fixes Social Security for the next generation that is just entering the workforce.

The U.K. is one of the few places in the world that has final salary pensions.

Social Security is an insurance policy. It's a terrible investment vehicle. Social Security has some great benefits. But it was never meant to be a savings plan. So we need to have a national debate. Should this 12.5 percent that we're contributing all go into a Social Security pool, or should half go into a mandatory savings plan?

We need to strengthen and save Social Security for today's workers. If we don't act now, this system, born out of the New Deal, will become a bad deal.

Part of the middle class promise is that, after a lifetime of hard work, you'll be able to retire and enjoy the fruits of that labor. Medicare was established to secure that promise.

Most of my folks back home think Social Security and Medicare are sacred commitments stronger than the strongest contract. And yet if you look at the details here in Washington, they're not even promises. They're scheduled benefits. I think we need to do all that we can to make sure those benefits are real.

Our nation's Social Security Trust Fund is depleting at an alarming rate, and failure to implement immediate reforms endangers the ability of Americans to plan for their retirement with the options and certainty they deserve.

The promise of Social Security was reflected in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's inter-generational compact that rewards hard work and provides retirement security.

Privatizing Social Security doesn't make sense, and it's out of step with the fundamental value of ensuring that after a life spent working hard and contributing to the greatness of our nation, every American should have a secure retirement.

A generous basic state pension is the least a civilized society should offer those who have worked hard and saved through their whole lives.

We should stop having a conversation about cutting Social Security a little bit or a lot.

I think it’s a nutty idea to fool around with the Social Security system and run the risk of hurting the people who have been saving all their lives…. It may be a new idea but it is a dumb one.

Taxing Social Security like other pensions would show that it is an earned right and help hold off proposals to cut benefits.

Seniors are concerned about Medicare and Social Security. I advocated in Congress a separate and distinct lockbox fund for Social Security.

The debate over Social Security should not be about how much we can cut from the program in order to balance the federal budget. The debate over Social Security should not be about raising the retirement age or limiting benefits. The debate over Social Security should be about retirement security.

The former pension minister, the Liberal Democrat Steve Webb said I was trying to abolish the lump sum. Instead, we are going to keep the lump sum and abolish the Liberal Democrats.

A comfortable retirement should not only be a luxury for the wealthy, but a reality for every New Yorker.

No retirement system in the world is as broken as ours.

Instead of cutting Social Security, we're going to expand Social Security benefits.

When the average Social Security benefit is $1328 a month, and more than one-third of our senior citizens rely on Social Security for Virtually all of their income, our job is to expand benefits, not cut them.