Social Security Trust Fund to go Bankrupt

When I was younger and working, I never expected Social Security to be around when I retired. Honestly, I didn't think I’d live this long. I started receiving Social Security almost four years ago, and it has eased my finances. Luckily, I have other sources of income, and that was the purpose of the program: to supplement your retirement income.

When we moved to Lynchburg a couple of decades ago, one of my neighbors was a charming lady who lived in the house behind us. We would sit on her front porch, and she would share stories of her younger years and tell us about the unique history of our historic neighborhood. Her husband, who had worked at the foundry, passed away forty years earlier, and she earned money by taking in laundry and cooking for her white neighbors when she was much younger. She put three children through college with her modest earnings. Social Security was her only source of income when we moved to Lynchburg.

After we sold that home, we moved into a temporary residence while building our retirement home. A neighbor fell ill about a year later and asked me to manage his finances. I paid his bills and discovered that his only income was his Social Security check, which was at or below the poverty level.

The point is, for many individuals, Social Security is their only source of income. Politicians have known the Social Security Trust fund will run out of money in about seven years. At that point, there will be a reduction in monthly benefits of between 23 to 40 percent, depending on which study you read. This would be devastating for people like my former neighbors.

This is one of the reasons I’m running for Congress. We need someone willing to tackle the hard problems and bring common sense back into politics. The longer we wait to fix what’s broken, the harder it will be to fix it. To see my plan to fix Social Security and keep it viable for future generations, please review my PowerPoint presentation on my website, GabriellaForCongress.com.