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Troy Jackson is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. He lives in Allagash.
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard my story.
I’m a fifth-generation Mainer from Allagash. I grew up in a family of loggers, and I went to work in the woods when I was young.
For years, I did hard, dangerous work alongside people who did everything they were supposed to do.
We worked hard. We took care of our families. We played by the rules. And still, it seemed like the harder we worked, the further behind we got.
A lot of Maine seniors know exactly what I’m talking about. They worked their entire lives, paid into Social Security with every paycheck and planned their retirement around the promise that the program would be there when they needed it.
Now, some of the richest people in the country are trying to kill Social Security.
I won’t stand for it. I’ve fought against these same billionaires in Maine, and if I’m elected this November to the U.S. Senate, I’ll take that fight to Washington.
Barely a day goes by that we don’t see a headline or hear a story on the news about the risk of Social Security running out of money.
And then come the threats, and the fear, and the solutions that target your ability to retire with dignity and financial security.
Here’s my plan for Social Security, to make sure it’s there for current and future retirees.
First, we put Social Security on firmer financial ground by scrapping the cap. If you make more than $184,500 a year, you don’t pay Social Security taxes on income over that amount. Meanwhile, if you make less than that, you pay on your full income.
It’s not fair, and I’ll fight to change it.
And second, I support increasing the benefits that retirees receive rather than cutting them.
The facts are clear: As President Donald Trump has driven up costs on everything from housing and groceries to medicine, heating oil, and gasoline, he and the Republicans in Congress have done nothing to help retirees keep up. For seniors trying to cover those increased costs and everything else that comes with everyday life, every dollar matters.
I believe the debate in Washington should be about how to strengthen retirement security, not how much we can ask retirees to give up.
I will never support raising the retirement age.
The billionaires and a whole lot of corporations seem to want us to work until we die. I know what physically demanding work does to your body after decades on the job. Telling someone who has already worked for 40 or 50 years that the solution to Social Security’s finances is simply to work longer is not a solution I support.
And I will never support privatizing Social Security.
I will never allow the hedge funds and financial scavengers to get their hands on Social Security. They say they want to “save it” by privatizing it. Social Security is a social insurance program, not an individual investment account. Its purpose is to provide a reliable source of income to retired workers and their families. I do not support replacing that guarantee with a system in which an individual worker’s retirement security depends on the performance of private investments.
Protecting retirement security also means addressing the costs seniors face and the choices Washington makes about where to spend money.
No more wasting tax dollars on ballrooms, reflecting pools, and arches.
No more forever wars, like the disastrous conflict in Iran that’s driving up heating oil and gas prices — and the price of everything else — while also putting U.S. service members in harm’s way.
No more blank checks from Susan Collins to Immigration and Custom Enforcement — the rogue agency that she recently voted to give an additional $70 billion. A young father was killed in Biddeford and countless families have been torn apart by ICE, most of whom had no criminal record and posed no risk to our country.
And no more tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy on the backs of working families. I’m going to fight for a fair tax system that gives working families a break and makes billionaires and corporations pay their fair share. That way we’ll have the resources to invest in our people.
When I was in the Maine Legislature, I stood up to then-Gov. Paul LePage when he raided the state employee pension. I voted to increase the income tax pension deduction for retirees, and I fought to expand access to Medicare Savings Programs, which can help eligible Mainers with premiums and other out-of-pocket costs.
When President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act in 1935, he described its purpose as providing Americans with protection against, among other things, “poverty-ridden old age.” More than 90 years later, that responsibility remains.
People who work hard their entire lives should be able to retire with dignity. They should be able to afford food, medicine, and a roof over their heads without wondering whether the benefits they spent decades earning will be there.
Social Security is a promise. I intend to keep it.