Iowans need to know exactly where our senators stand on Social Security. In a recent vote in the Senate, Republican Senator Grassley voted in favor of plans that might require deep benefit cuts or massive increases in debt. Democratic Senator Harkin voted to "reject any Social Security plan that requires deep benefit cuts or a massive increase in debt."
You can see how all senators voted at http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&sessio
n=1&vote=00049.
[Letter continued]The money for Social Security comes from two sources: the first is a trust fund of money that has already been paid in. This money is essentially sitting in the bank. The second source is the social security we pay in every month.
The Social Security Trustees tell us that the current trust fund does not even need to be touched at all for almost 15 years. It will be over 35 years before the trust fund is empty and we have to rely solely on payroll sources. That is not a crisis. Small changes are all that are needed, like instituting a flat rate for Social Security contributions. Currently, people making more than 90,000 dollars a year contribute a smaller percentage of their income to Social Security than the rest of us. If we simply instituted a flat contribution for all contributors, there'd be no problem at all.
Once again, the Republicans in Washington are out of touch with mainstream America. And Republicans like Senator Grassley want to cut benefits and increase debt.
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I'm not entirely happy with the letter, but we're limited to just 300 words.
The two big things I think I did right are 1) using the conservative idea of a flat tax against them and 2) associating Republicans with Washington.
We really need to use the language and hit people over the head with the idea that Republicans are running Washington. If we continually use the phrase Republicans are out of touch, people may eventually realize that Republicans really are out of touch with the mainstream.