Co-sponsor Sen. Whitehouse's Resolution to Protect Social Security and Medicare

15,000 Citizen Co-sponsors and counting -- add your name today!

As things stand right now -- thanks to our persistent and public rejection of Social Security and Medicare benefit cuts -- the most viable proposal currently under consideration to raise the debt ceiling, put forth by Majority Leader Reid, leaves these benefits intact. Now, as the August 2 debt ceiling deadline approaches, we've got to make sure Social Security and Medicare benefit cuts remain off the table, through and through.

Become a citizen co-sponsor of Senator Whitehouse's "Sense of the Senate" resolution, to unequivocally reject any cuts to Social Security or Medicare benefits.

Text of the Sense of the Senate on Protecting Social Security and Medicare:

(a) Findings -- Congress makes the following findings:

(1) Over 34 million retired workers currently receive Social Security benefits -- averaging a modest $14,100 a year.
(2) In 2008, 23% of retirees receiving Social Security depended on it for all or almost all of their income.
(3) According to the AARP, Social Security kept 36% of seniors out of poverty in 2008.
(4) Reducing Social Security benefits would cause many seniors to have to choose between food and drugs and rent and heat.
(5) Ninety-five percent of seniors -- almost 37 million in 2008 -- get their health coverage through Medicare.
(6) Without Medicare, seniors -- many of whom live off of Social Security -- would have to turn to the costly and uncertain private market for health insurance.
(7) Social Security and Medicare are extremely successful social insurance programs that permit America’s seniors to retire with dignity and security after a lifetime of hard work, and relieve young American families of worry about their own futures, allowing freedom of opportunity in America.

(b) Sense of the Senate: It is the Sense of the Senate that any agreement to reduce the budget deficit should not include cuts to Social Security or Medicare benefits.