Jim Cooper on Social Security Democratic Representative (TN-5)

Strengthen Trust Funds and take them off-budget.

Blue Dog budget framework
• Take the Social Security and Medicare trust fund surpluses off-budget and require that the trust fund surpluses be saved for Social Security and Medicare
• Reserve half of the on-budget surplus over the next five years -- $370 billion -- for debt reduction and strengthening Social Security and Medicare
• Allocate one-quarter of the on-budget surplus over the next five years for investments in priorities identified by the President and supported by both parties in Congress, including defense, Medicare prescription drugs, education, agriculture, low-income programs and veterans.
• Devote one-quarter of the on-budget surplus to tax cuts retroactive to 2001, for a net tax cut of $180 billion from 2001-2006.

Rated 100% by the ARA, indicating a pro-senior voting record.

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.