Dignity and Security
Chris Dodd understands that security in retirement is one of our most fundamental values as Americans. After a lifetime of hard work and paying taxes, seniors deserve the dignity of a secure retirement – reliable health care, affordable housing and prescription drugs, secure pensions, and strong Social Security and Medicare programs – the twin pillars of retirement security in this country and the embodiment of our shared values. With proven leadership that ensures a promise made is a promise kept, Chris Dodd believes every senior can look forward to their golden years with optimism.
The Dodd Plan to Strengthen Retirement Security
- Protect Social Security from Privatization. Chris Dodd will never put Social Security, the cornerstone of many Americans’ retirement plans, at risk by subjecting it to the fluctuating and volatile financial markets.
- Safeguard Pension Plans from Corporate Raiding. Chris Dodd will enhance federal oversight of pensions. Employees should never have to forfeit their retirement security to pay for the mistakes of their employers.
- Require Medicare to Negotiate Drug Prices with Pharmaceutical Companies. Chris Dodd will ensure that Medicare harnesses the enormous purchasing power of the millions of seniors enrolled in the Part D Prescription Drug Benefit to bargain for lower drug prices.
- Eliminate the So-Called “Doughnut Hole” in Medicare Coverage. Chris Dodd will protect seniors from any coverage gaps to alleviate the financial hardship of having to pay 100 percent of their medical bills at any point.
- Expand Support for Long-Term and Elder Care. Chris Dodd will provide incentives and support for Americans who care for their elderly relatives. He will also require insurance companies cover eligible long-term care recipients.
- Strengthen Home Energy Assistance. Chris Dodd will fully support programs like LIHEAP – that provides critically needed energy assistance – so that seniors never have to choose between heating their homes and paying for their food or medical bills.
A Lifetime of Protecting America’s Seniors
- Dodd Strongly Opposed President Bush’s Plan to Privatize Social Security. Chris Dodd has long opposed the idea of diverting payroll taxes – the tax used to fund Social Security – into private investment accounts that fluctuate with the stock market and could lower or decimate the amount of money seniors receive when they retire.
- Dodd Opposed the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan That Had a Coverage Gap and Banned Price Negotiation with Drug Companies. Chris Dodd voted against the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug Bill, which included the so-called “doughnut hole” – forcing seniors to pay 100 percent for their medication after costs reach $2,250, and until they have paid $3,600 out-of-pocket. In addition, the bill banned Medicare from directly negotiating with drug companies for lower prices. As Dodd noted during the debate on the bill, “The architects of the bill are spending billions of dollars not to reform Medicare but to dismantle it.”
- Dodd Supported Efforts to Improve Medicare’s Prescription Drug Coverage. With some seniors in certain regions of the country having to choose from over 40 different drug plans, Chris Dodd twice voted to extend the law’s enrollment deadline. The law, which Dodd opposed, forced seniors to pick a drug plan by May 15, 2006. If seniors did not pick a plan by that date, they were forced to pay an additional seven percent penalty to their monthly premium, for life.
- Dodd Worked to Insure Seniors Paid the Most Competitive Price for Their Prescription Drugs. Chris Dodd has worked to find ways to provide cheaper prescription drugs for seniors. He cosponsored legislation to allow seniors to re-import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and other select countries. In addition, Dodd cosponsored a measure allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices.
- Dodd Worked to Provide Tax Incentives for Long-Term Care. Chris Dodd was an original cosponsor of a measure that sought to provide a tax credit for long-term care expenses. The bill also provided a deduction for premiums paid under a long-term care insurance plan.
- Dodd Fought to Help Low-Income Seniors With Their Home Heating Bills. Chris Dodd has fought to provide adequate funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) – a federal program that provides low-income families, including many seniors on fixed income, with assistance in paying energy bills. “Our most vulnerable citizens shouldn’t have to choose between heating their homes or going without food or medicine,” said Dodd.
Comments
Senator:
Now that seniors is America and healthier and more active than ever, where do you stand on expanding Senior Corps and other volunteer opportunities for the boomer generation?
As in healthcare the government has the opportunity to establish healthcare that competes with private pensions by setting a standard and secondly restricting the amount of money that may be used to speculate (similar to banks putting money in the fed). On top of that the accumulated dues of a leaving ensuree need to be transfered to the new insurance company (minus costs). That way insured people cannot just be dumped into the government safety net (by marking them uninsurable).
A New Solution to the Social Security Problem
America is looking for some new thinking rather than the same old "raise taxes / cut benefits" mantra every candidate parrots.
Here's a new idea: Fund Social Security the same way we fund the military.
Think about how we fund the military (deficit spending), and apply exactly the same procedure to Social Security (and to Medicare).
A more complete description of the solution is at www.rodgermitchell.com
Dear Senator Dodd,
Would you be willing to let me run with you as Vice President? I am a TRUE AMERICAN, highly intelligent, motivated, perceptive, receptive, personable, well informed and I know what the people need and want. I am a strong, natural born leader and come with
followers, even though I have never been Officially involved in
politics, I have an overwhelming desire and a calling
to aid my Country with my God given gifts.
My strengths comes from the opposite end of politics......
Growing up in a single parent home with my mother and three brothers, living in the poorest of economical conditions, and am
still til this day living under those economical conditions.
I have lost everything I ever had due to the lousy prowess of the
misadministration of Bushitler / Cha-Chingy.
I am For the people and With the People. I would like to be the
Vice President.....Would you take me as your running mate?
This country needs me and I need my country.
What say you, to this poor, devastated American? Please reply.
There is nothing in the social security trust fund but a piece of paper that says "future tax payers owe old people $40 trillion." If that fund had stocks, even if they went down X% they would still be something real. So, to say that the social security trust fund shouldn't invest in real assets is ludicrous. Right now, there's nothing but a gun to the head of future tax payers. But the tax payer is all tapped out. We can't afford to pay anymore. A promise from future tax payers is supposed to be more secure than owning real assets -- stocks? That's ridiculous!
It's time to get back to roots and ask people to care for their own parents when they are old. Government should get out of the social security business. And, for those old people who do not have children, well they didn't have to pay for college and other expenses to raise those children so, all else being equal, they should have more money saved for their own retirement.
Those who do not have children or savings should ask their church for support. It's time we separate Church and State -- for thousands of years it has always been the role of the Church to care for the elderly, the sick, and the poor. Let's get the government out of the Church's business.
By abolishing social security, we will abolish social security payroll taxes. American workers will have lots more money to spend -- money that they can use to care for their elderly parents in a more economical and personally beneficial manner than the present system. And, with grandma at home rather than all alone, she can instill values in her grandchildren.
Social Security is more than just a retirement system. It is a system where we all (at least working people) pay into the system to ensure that their fellow Americans who have had issues in their lives (parent died while they were young, disability, ect) will get the help that they need to have a chance to live the American dream. I sure hope that the person who wrote that they wanted the Social Security system abolished doesn't end up with one of these life changing events and doesn't have the Social Security system there to help.
With so many studies showing that Social Security and Medicare going insolvent in the not too distant future, I'd like to know more about
how we go about paying for these entitlement programs. Could the Senator address that on this website?
Sen. Dodd:
I saw a disturbing 60 Minutes report yesterday featuring US Comptroller David Walker. Walker believes that the federal government's obligations from entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security will soon soar due to the number of baby boomers who are about to reach retirement age. Walker believes this will result in a financial crisis if action is not taken very soon. What do you propose to do about this problem?
I believe the risk is NOT in controlling our retirement money as individuals, but in allowing the government to once again choose what THEY think is best for us. You are assuming that everyone is going to buy "tech stocks" and play the market. Who do you think the US government relies upon when they issue bonds/notes/bills....the US citizens who take their own hard-earned money and invest in those bonds/notes/bills of the US Treasury! You could privatize Social Security but place some simple limitations on what the money can be invested in. At least we (the citizens) could gain a little more control of our own lives.
I believe you're too flakey to run or control anything in Government besides a mop.
(Go Rudy!)
I am wondering who I should contact regarding whether Senator Dodd plans to co-sponsor Senator Tom Harkin's pension security bill (S. 1725). I wrote a letter to Senator Dodd on this topic a month ago but have not heard back.
To The Honorable Senator Chris Dodd:
I am writing to inquire about your stance on Pension Security.
I and about 14,000 other retirees of Embarq are loosing our medical insurance and part of our life insurance. The company says that it is an effort to cut their bottom line, even though they gave the now retired CEO a $2.4 in severance pay and $24 million dollar stock options. The EOC has made an exception to the rule concerning companies changing their coverage of retirees with Medicare because of age discrimination. Many of us worked for 35 to 40 years with a company that made promises of lifetime medical coverage and death benefits. We took assignments away from home for months; some married couples even separated and worked hundreds of miles apart because of what the company promised us. Union contacts over wage increases were limited because of the promised benefits that we were to have for a lifetime. Now we are told that these benefits will be taken away even though many retired early because they were encouraged by the company to take early retirement based on these promises.
I retired on disability and have a wife that is unable to work for health reasons and is dependent upon the promised benefits. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Retirees all over the country are being affected by companies reneging on their promises and our government and elected officials are allowing it.
I would like to know where you stand on protecting these benefits for thousands of retired people who depended and counted these benefits as part of their retirement years security.
I would like to forward copy of your response to over 200,000 retirees not only of Embarq but ATT and Bell Retirees.
I think that this should be a major issue in the upcoming presidential election.
do you belive in gays
Do you belive in gay marige in all states?¿
I SEE DIFFRENT COMMENTS ON ALL SORTS OF SUBJECTS BUT I DO NOT SEE SOMEBODY TALKING ABOUT OUR NATIONAL DEBT OF $9,000,000,000,000 TRILLION AND COUNTING AS YOU READ THIS! AND HOW THEY HAVE A PLAN TO TRY AND LOWER (NOT PAY) THIS STAGGERING AMOUNT. EVERYBODY IS TALKING ABOUT THE SAME'OL BULL@#$& BLAH,BLAH,BLAH,BLAH,BLAH!!!!!
I have not found any specific website information about how the budget will be balanced and, specifically how social security and medicare will be funded in the future.
As I listen to another candidate's advertisement about cutting estate taxes and capital gain taxes, I feel that this only benefits the rich. It has occurred to me that these taxes, especially estate taxes, would be an excellent way to fund social security and medicare. In this way it would not be just the young working class of the country contributing but also additional contributions from many of those who have benefitted from social security and medicare.
I'm 23 years old, and I never expect to receive social security when I retire (even though I have to pay into it). I see my money going into social security as a tax to support the generations before mine, of which I will never see the benefit of. At the same time, I also don't understand why anyone in my generation expects the federal government and their previous employers to take care of them when they do retire. To me, it's a severe lack of personal responsibility and unwillingness to learn the values in investing. Cutting capital gains taxes benefits anyone who receives capital gains - those who are investing. You don't have to be rich to have capital gains, only an investor. From my point of view, the government's leading people to believe that they can and/or should lean on social security for their own financial needs was an insanely horrible decision. I do believe that in our wealthy country, our government should step in and aid people in times of need, but people should not be looking to their government or employers to fund their retirement. I would love to see social security no longer eligible for use as a retirement fund in the future, and only used as a "safety net" for those who are in a financial crisis, whether it means they lost their job at a bad time, lost their business, or went through a medical disaster which left them broke. Personal compound interest investment funds are widely available and far more cost effective.
Thank you for defending our rights, the rights of seniors and all citizens. I appreciate your willingness to stand up against the injustices forced upon us by politions from all parties.