Hard work. Honesty. Integrity. Taking care of neighbors. The American Dream throughout our nation's history has a core concept: if you work hard, live honestly, and conduct yourself with integrity, you'll be able to live a happy life and provide for your family. Work hard, get ahead, take care of those around you.
Social Security is at the core of this uniquely American compact: we take care of our own through our hard work and honest living. For 75 years, Social Security has provided honest, hard working Americans with the trust that, should the worst happen, they would not be left destitute.
Sadly, my opponent Tom Reed doesn't believe that hard working Americans are entitled to this lifelong guarantee.
Rather than grow our economy so that we can endow Social Security with the funds needed to remain solvent, my opponent prefers to reward companies that continue to outsource American jobs. Furthermore, he's wants to privatize Social Security and entrust Wall Street to potentially gamble away the retirement of millions of hard working, middle class Americans through the same risky and ill-thought business practices that created our current recession.
And, if that wasn't enough, though he calls himself a small government conservative, he favors creating an expensive and large bureaucracy that would use "means testing" to distribute social security funds. For those unfamiliar, "means test" is a fancy term for creating an arbitrary government agency made up of unelected bureaucrats that would decide which Americans qualify to receive Social Security funds that we all pay into.
Enough is enough. Two years ago today, I sat on a desolate Afghan base in remote Ghazni Province, Afghanistan because I believe in the American dream -- so much so that I went to war to ensure my future children would live in a country where they could pursue it. Social Security is a fundamental part of that American dream and I didn't go to war to ensure that rich get richer off of the backs of the middle class. Unlike my opponent, I'm not a debt collector who's earned his money by taking from hard working Americans. I'm a citizen and a soldier who has time and time again risked his life for his nation so that the promise of the American Dream would live on for generations to come.
Today as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of Social Security's founding, I ask that you make the clear choice in supporting my candidacy so that together we can tell the politicians in Washington that enough is enough! Visit my website www.zellerforcongress.com and join our team! Help me tell the folks in Washington that We, the American people are sick and tired of politics run amok. Stop raiding Social Security. Stop rewarding the elite few at the expense of the American Middle Class. Put aside partisan bickering, start solving problems, and enact policies that will grow the economy, create jobs, and in turn return Social Security to full solvency.
Together we can reclaim our government of the people, by the people, and for the people. This November the choice is clear -- send me to Congress so that I can continue to fight for the country I love so dearly. Nine years ago, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, I took a solemn oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Today, I stand ready to reaffirm that oath and fight on your behalf. One team, One fight -- together we can recapture our American Dream.
If you agree, and if you want to join our team, please visit www.zellerforcongress.com today and learn how you can get involved.
UPDATE:
I strongly oppose privatization of Social Security, I oppose means testing, and I oppose raising the retirement age.
The key to protecting Social Security is to recognize that the single best thing we can do is to return our economy to a position of strength. We must also make a permanent commitment to stop raiding the Social Security trust fund to pay for other federal spending.
You can read more about my positions, and about debt collector Tom Reed's willingness to undermine Social Security, on my website here.
If you want to help me fight back, please click here to make a contribution on Act Blue.