Empower America’s Seven Principles of Social Security

1. Guarantee all promised benefits to current and near-term beneficiaries. First and foremost, we must fully protect the current Social Security system for those on it and those going on it in the next 10 to 15 years. Millions of Americans have made retirement decisions based on the contract of the current system. We absolutely must protect them. That means no benefit cuts. Promises made must be promises kept.

2. Give all workers the opportunity to generate increased retirement income and build personal assets by investing a significant portion of their payroll taxes in personal retirement accounts.

3. Give workers freedom of choice to remain in the current Social Security system or choose the new Personal Retirement Account system.

4. Maintain a federal safety net, guaranteeing that each worker’s retirement income under the new system would be no less than what Social Security would pay.

5. Address and ultimately solve Social Security’s long term financing challenges without tax increases. Making the transition to a fully-funded system and moving the economy onto a higher long-run growth track will help us avoid the program’s predicted cash flow problems.

6. Avoid imposing additional administrative costs on employers, particularly small businesses.

7. Adopt pro-growth tax and regulatory policies that will increase the rate of return on the Personal Retirement Accounts and smooth the transition to a new system.