Today (Monday, 8/15)) was the 81st anniversary of the Social Security program. Senior advocates and retirees were at the Florida Capitol to deliver a pledge to the office of one of the state’s U.S. Senators.
Those advocates included Nikki Barnes. She’s with Unite Women Florida and is also running for Wakulla County commissioner. She worried Senator Marco Rubio could vote to privatize Social Security, along with his earlier support for a higher retirement age.
“We see what happened with the stock market. We see what happens when you gamble with peoples’ future and what happened on Wall Street and it’s something we can’t afford to gamble with. There’s too much at risk,” she said during a media event on the Capitol’s plaza level.
The group then went up to Rubio’s office on the 21st floor of the Capitol. Barbara DeVane with the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans delivered a pledge to Rubio Aide Brian Mimbs urging the senator to help protect Social Security by increasing contributions to the program.
“Scrap the cap that’s now on Social Security taxes where a billionaire like Bill Gates pays in the same as the rest of us,” she told Mimbs.
Advocates say removing that contribution cap would keep Social Security solvent for many years to come. Besides the pledge, the group also left behind a birthday cake celebrating the program’s anniversary.
