Pensions and Social Security
Protecting Senior Citizens and Retirees

Contribute to Help Peter Fight for Assisting the Elderly!

Over-paid executives bankrupt their workers' pension funds. The huge federal surplus of the 90's is being transformed into the largest deficit in the history of the world, financed with money from the Social Security Trust Fund. Guess who foots the bill? We do.

illions of older Americans, including many in Florida, lost a significant portion of their retirement income to the corporate scandals that have rocked our financial markets in recent years. Some lost their entire pensions. But the Republican-controlled Congress and the president turned a deaf ear to correcting the abuses that led to these devastating losses.

In the aftermath of the Enron collapse and the loss of nearly all of its employees' retirement funds, I introduced the first Congressional measure to protect our nation's employees' pensions from similar disasters in the future. My bill, the Pension Protection Act, offered real reform, not the lip service provided in the President's proposals. Unfortunately, the protections offered in my bill were incorporated only sparingly in the Administration's meager attempt to address the issue of lost pensions. As a result, we are all still vulnerable to pension losses and future scandals.

That's why, as your Senator, I will continue to fight for real pension safeguards and stiff new criminal penalties for corporate pension fraud. You worked hard for your pension - I'll work just as hard to keep it safe.

And I'll continue the fight to protect the pensions and benefits of military retirees. Congress has a responsibility to make sure we meet the needs of those who fought in defense of our freedom. So I am cosponsoring both the Retired Pay Restoration Act so veterans can receive both their retired military pay and their disability, and the Keep Our Promise To America's Retirees Act to provide better health care options. As Senator, I'll have a stronger voice to fight for these and other critical military retiree protections. I'll also continue my fight to safeguard Social Security.

he president and congressional Republicans seem to believe that the Social Security Trust fund is a piggy bank they can use to pay for tax breaks for their special interest friends and contributors. In the Senate, I'll be an unflinching advocate for preserving the financial integrity of Social Security to make sure the contract between our senior citizens and their government is never jeopardized.

n fact, I'll work to make Social Security go even further for our senior citizens. As a congressman, I supported the modernization of the indexes used to determine cost of living allowances (COLAs), helping to increase the amount our retirees receive each month. As your Senator, I'll continue to pursue this and other initiatives to safeguard the fiscal integrity of the Social Security system and the financial well-being of our senior citizens.

Protecting senior citizens and retirees from financial abuse and mismanagement are basic responsibilities of our government. But the Republican leadership in the White House and the Senate have forgotten those responsibilities. As Senator, I'll never let them forget again.