 Hi, this is Senator Bernie Sanders. Much of the media often approaches politics as if it were a baseball game or a soap opera. Who's leading in the latest poll? How much money did a candidate raise? Did someone say something really dumb last night? That's what a lot of the media thinks modern politics should be about. I disagree. I'm old-fashioned, I guess, but I think what a campaign and a democratic society is about is the need to discuss and debate the most important issues facing our people and the world. And that's what I want to do now. And by the way, I would very much appreciate your help in getting this video widely distributed. Please share it with your friends, family and co-workers. The more we raise public consciousness in this country, the better we do and the better our nation does. The issue that I'd like to touch upon today is Social Security, perhaps the most important federal program in existence. A program of enormous consequence to the 59 million seniors, people with disabilities and children who are beneficiaries. I know you have heard over and over again that Social Security is going broke, that it won't be there for our kids and grandchildren, that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, that Social Security is contributing to our large deficit and national debt, etc., etc., etc. And you've also heard many Republicans tell us that we need to cut Social Security, raise the retirement age, or maybe even privatize the program. Well, I am happy to tell you that much of what you've heard is simply not true. Despite what many of my Republican colleagues are saying, let's be clear, Social Security is not going broke. Social Security has a $2.8 trillion surplus and, according to the Social Security Administration, can pay out every benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 19 years. That is not a program going broke. Further, Social Security is independently funded by the payroll tax. The 6.2% of your paycheck that you and your employer pay. That means that Social Security does not add one nickel to the deficit. It has its own source of funding. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that the Republicans forgot to pay for added trillions to the deficit and national debt, not Social Security. Now, the truth is that while we do not have a Social Security crisis today, we do have a retirement crisis. And that is a very serious problem. All over this country, millions of Americans, people who have worked their entire lives are wondering if they will ever be able to retire with any shred of dignity. The sad truth is that as a result of the collapse of our middle class and declining wages, more than half of older workers between the ages of 55 to 64 have no retirement savings. Imagine that. You're heading to the moment in your life when you're no longer able to work, when you can't earn any income, and you have nothing in the bank. How scary is that? Further, millions of other workers have seen their pensions eliminated or severely cut back. Promises were made to them by their employers, and those promises were not kept. Thirty years ago, more than a third of private sector workers had a guaranteed defined benefit pension plan. Today, fewer than 18% do, and that number is shrinking every day. The result is that many of our parents and our grandparents are trying to survive on totally inadequate incomes. Millions of seniors today are trying to make ends meet by the medicine they need, by the food they require, or heat their homes, on incomes of $12,000 or $13,000 a year. Frankly, I don't know how they do it. And the truth is that many of them really don't do it. Many of them don't take the medicine that they should. Many of them live in homes that are too cold in the winter. Many of them don't get the nutrition they need in order to stay healthy. That is not how we should treat the seniors of this country, some of the most vulnerable people in the United States. At a time when the average social security benefit is just $1328 a month, and over a third of senior citizens rely on social security for virtually all of their income, our job must be to expand benefits, not cut them. Our job is to strengthen social security, not weaken it. Let's be clear. Social security is the most successful government program in our nation's history. Before social security was signed into law, nearly half of senior citizens lived in poverty. Today, while much too high, the elderly poverty rate is about 10 percent. Let me also be clear in stating that one of the great strengths of social security is that through good economic times and bad, social security has paid every nickel owed to every eligible American on time and without delay. That is an extraordinary accomplishment and in this unstable economy something that we should not take for granted. When corporations eliminated defined benefit pension plans over the last 30 years, social security was right there paying full benefits. When millions of Americans lost their life savings after Wall Street's greed and recklessness crashed the economy in 2008, social security was right there paying full benefits. Although social security's finances will remain strong for the next 19 years, I believe Congress must strengthen and expand social security for generations to come. Well, how do we do that? The answer is simple. We demand that the wealthiest Americans in this country pay their fair share into the social security system. Today, at a time when almost all new income and wealth is going to the top 1 percent, a billion app pays the same amount of money into social security as someone who makes $118,500 a year. That's because the social security payroll tax is capped. If we lift that cap and apply the payroll tax on all income over $250,000 a year, we can do four things. First, we can make sure that social security can pay out every benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 50 years, not 19 years, 50 years. Second, we can expand benefits by an average of $65 a month. Third, we can lift seniors out of poverty by increasing the minimum benefits paid to low-income workers when they retire. Fourth, we can increase cost of living expenses to keep up with the rising cost of health care and prescription drugs. Expanding social security by making the wealthiest Americans pay more is not only the right thing to do from a moral perspective, it is good economics and it is what a large majority of the American people want us to do. Our job, together, is to create an economy which works for all, not just the wealthy and the powerful. Our job is to protect the most vulnerable people in our society, including the elderly and the disabled. Our job is to extend and expand social security, not cut it or privatize it. Please work with me to make this happen. And please, get this video out to your friends and family. Thank you very much.