Restore funding to the Social Services Block Grant
In addition to reauthorizing the Older Americans Act, Lincoln urged Congress to restore funding to the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), which has been cut by more than $1 billion over the last five years. This year alone, the Senate proposed cutting
SSBG by $1.1 billion.
In Arkansas, a significant portion of SSBG funds are used to operate seniors centers, deliver Meals on Wheels, and provide transportation for the homebound elderly. Many seniors are still unable to receive nutritional assistance
and about 1,300 homebound elderly are on waiting lists for home-delivered meals. In addition, because Arkansas spends a majority of its SSBG funds on senior services, 40 senior centers around the state may have to reduce operating hours or even shut
down, said Lincoln. “The terrible irony of this situation is that these cuts come at a time when we’re experiencing an unprecedented surplus,” Lincoln said. “We should invest in these programs while our economy is strong.”
Source: Press Release, “Honor Commitment to Seniors”
Jun 19, 2000
Eliminate Earnings Test; encourage seniors to work
The Senate today passed a measure supported by Blanche Lincoln to eliminate an earnings test that penalizes Social Security recipients who continue to work after they reach the normal retirement age. “Not only should we reward our seniors who want to
work and enrich their quality of life, but many senior citizens have to seek other income in order to afford basic necessities such as food and medicine that Social Security alone won’t cover,” said Lincoln, who cosponsored the legislation last year. “An
earnings test only punishes their efforts and sends the wrong message to our nation’s senior citizens.“
Lincoln has supported measures that encourage seniors to continue working into retirement and has also supported employment programs for older
Americans. As a US Representative, Lincoln voted for the Senior Citizens Right to Work Act. She also recently sent a letter to Gov. Mike Huckabee asking him to reinstate funding for Green Thumb, a statewide employment program for seniors in Arkansas.
Source: Press Release, “Earnings Test”
Mar 22, 2000
Voted NO on establishing reserve funds & pre-funding for Social Security.
Voting YES would:
require that the Federal Old Age and Survivors Trust Fund be used only to finance retirement income of future beneficiaries;
ensure that there is no change to benefits for individuals born before January 1, 1951
provide participants with the benefits of savings and investment while permitting the pre-funding of at least some portion of future benefits; and
ensure that the funds made available to finance such legislation do not exceed the amounts estimated to be actuarially available.
Proponents recommend voting YES because:
Perhaps the worst example of wasteful spending is when we take the taxes people pay for Social Security and, instead of saving them, we spend them on other things. Even worse than spending Social Security on other things is we do not count it as debt when we talk about the deficit every year. So using the Social Security money is actually a way to hide even more wasteful spending without counting it as debt.
This Amendment would change that.
Opponents recommend voting NO because:
This amendment has a fatal flaw. It leaves the door open for private Social Security accounts by providing participants with the option of "pre-funding of at least some portion of future benefits."
This body has already closed the door on the President's ill-conceived plan for private Social Security accounts. The opposition to privatization is well-known:
Privatizing Social Security does nothing to extend the solvency of the program.
Transition costs would put our Nation in greater debt by as much as $4.9 trillion.
Creating private accounts would mean benefit cuts for retirees, by as much as 40%.
Half of all American workers today have no pension plan from their employers. It is critical that we protect this safety net.
Make no mistake about it, this is a stalking-horse for Social Security. It looks good on the surface, but this is an amendment to privatize Social Security.
Voted NO on using the Social Security Surplus to fund tax reductions.
Vote on a motion to table (or kill) the motion to recommit the bill to the Senate Finance and Claims Committee with instructions directing the committee to "correct the fact that the bill uses" Social Security surpluses for tax breaks.
Reference:
Bill S.1429
; vote number 1999-236
on Jul 30, 1999
Voted NO on Social Security Lockbox & limiting national debt.
This vote limited debate on the amendment offered by Sen. Abraham (R-MI) that would have created a Social Security "lockbox" and establish limits on the public debt. [A YES vote was for a lockbox]. This vote failed because 3/5 of the Senate did not vote.
Status: Cloture Motion Rejected Y)54; N)45; NV)1
Reference: Motion to invoke cloture on Amdt #254 to S. 557;
Bill S. 557
; vote number 1999-90
on Apr 22, 1999
Create Retirement Savings Accounts.
Lincoln signed the manifesto, "A New Agenda for the New Decade":
Balance America’s Commitments to the Young and the Old An ever-growing share of the federal budget today consists of automatic transfers from working Americans to retirees. Moreover, the costs of the big entitlements for the elderly -- Social Security and Medicare -- are growing at rates that will eventually bankrupt them and that could leave little to pay for everything else government does. We can’t just spend our way out of the problem; we must find a way to contain future costs. The federal government already spends seven times as much on the elderly as it does on children. To allow that ratio to grow even more imbalanced would be grossly unfair to today’s workers and future generations. In addition, Social Security and Medicare need to be modernized to reflect conditions not envisioned when they were created in the 1930s and the 1960s. Social Security,
for example, needs a stronger basic benefit to bolster its critical role in reducing poverty in old age. Medicare needs to offer retirees more choices and a modern benefit package that includes prescription drugs. Such changes, however, will only add to the cost of the programs unless they are accompanied by structural reforms that restrain their growth and limit their claim on the working families whose taxes support the programs.
Goals for 2010
Honor our commitment to seniors by ensuring the future solvency of Social Security and Medicare.
Make structural reforms in Social Security and Medicare that slow their future cost growth, modernize benefits (including a prescription drug benefit for Medicare), and give beneficiaries more choice and control over their retirement and health security.
Create Retirement Savings Accounts to enable low-income Americans to save for their own retirement.
Source: The Hyde Park Declaration 00-DLC7 on Aug 1, 2000
Rated 70% by the ARA, indicating a pro-senior voting record.
Lincoln scores 70% by the ARA on senior issues
The mission of the Alliance for Retired Americans is to ensure social and economic justice and full civil rights for all citizens so that they may enjoy lives of dignity, personal and family fulfillment and security. The Alliance believes that all older and retired persons have a responsibility to strive to create a society that incorporates these goals and rights and that retirement provides them with opportunities to pursue new and expanded activities with their unions, civic organizations and their communities.
The following ratings are based on the votes the organization considered most important; the numbers reflect the percentage of time the representative voted the organization's preferred position.
