South Carolina Senate Fact #9: PRAs Are the Best Solution

Social Security reform is an important issue in the race for South Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat. That’s good because the retirement security crisis is the most important non-defense issue facing South Carolinians today: the Social Security Trustees’ Report noted that if the program isn’t reformed soon, Americans could face a 50 percent increase in payroll taxes, a 27 percent cut in benefits, or— most likely— some combination of the two.

Unless reforms are passed soon, taxpayers and retirees will face these tough choices in 2018, when Social Security benefits will exceed contributions. The problem is that the existing Social Security “Trust Fund” is full of meaningless government IOUs— there are no real assets waiting for future retirees.

Luckily, Representative Jim DeMint has a plan to deal with this massive unfunded liability without tax hikes or benefit cuts: Social Security reform through Personal Retirement Accounts (PRAs) that workers own and control. These accounts would grow with the American economy and avert the coming fiscal meltdown.

Unfortunately, DeMint’s opponent Inez Tenenbaum is following John Kerry’s tactic: attacking PRAs while refusing to offer an alternative solution. Tenenbaum has launched a baseless smear campaign against Jim DeMint’s Social Security reform plan and has not presented her own proposal to save Social Security.

The retirement security disaster is just 14 years away. South Carolina deserves a real solution— not more empty rhetoric from Inez Tenenbaum.

For more information, please visit http://www.freedomworks.org/southcarolina/