Sponsored by:
Senator JEFF VAN DREW
District 1 (Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland)
Senator CHRISTOPHER J. CONNORS
District 9 (Atlantic, Burlington and Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Urges Congress and President to refrain from reducing federal funding to Medicare and Social Security programs.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
A Senate Resolution urging Congress and the President to refrain from reducing federal funding to Medicare and Social Security programs.
Whereas, A recent Washington Post article suggested that the federal budget for fiscal year 2019 will result in cuts to the federal Medicare and Social Security programs; and
Whereas, The Medicare program was created in 1965 because the federal government perceived a critical need to provide a health care safety net for the elderly and disabled throughout this nation; and
Whereas, Cuts to the Medicare program could lead to the most vulnerable citizens having to cope with a lack of access to health care in their “golden years,” including the more than 1.4 million New Jerseyans who rely on Medicare for their health care needs; and
Whereas, Social Security is the nation's most successful and most important family income protection program; and
Whereas, Social Security's income protections, including guaranteed, lifelong benefits, cost-of-living adjustments to guard against inflation, increased benefits for families, greater income replacement for low-income workers, and disability and survivor benefits, are the backbone of retirement security and family protection in the United States; and
Whereas, Social Security provides crucial income protection for 68 million individuals, which is one out of every five Americans, who receive an average monthly benefit of over $1,300; and
Whereas, Cutting guaranteed benefits will hurt the elderly because Social Security is the only source of retirement income for most Americans; and
Whereas, Instead of enacting damaging cuts to Social Security that could undermine its family income protections, careful and thoughtful reforms should be administered to address Social Security's funding needs without slashing benefits or exploding the deficit; and
Whereas, Congress and the President should not cut funding and thereby undermine the capacity of the Medicare and Social Security programs to meet the health care and income needs of our senior and disabled citizens across America and, instead, they should focus on the needs of our aging and disabled population for continued access to health care and incomes and take an equitable and reasonable approach to ensuring the preservation of this program for this and succeeding generations of our most vulnerable fellow citizens; and
Whereas, It is altogether fitting, proper, and in the public interest for this House to respectfully urge the United States Congress and the President to refrain from reducing federal funding to the Medicare and Social Security programs; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of New Jersey:
1. This House respectfully urges the United States Congress and the President to refrain from reducing federal funding to the Medicare and Social Security programs.
2. Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Secretary of the Senate to the presiding officers of the United States Senate and House of Representatives, to each member of Congress elected from this State, and to the President of the United States.
STATEMENT
This resolution respectfully urges the United States Congress and the President to refrain from reducing federal funding to the Medicare and Social Security programs.