Concord Coalition's Five Questions for Candidates

October 13, 2000

The Concord Coalition ran a full page ad in last Sunday's New York Times promoting the five questions voters should ask candidates about Social Security in the coming elections. The questions are:

1. Every official projection shows that senior benefits, including Social Security, will claim a ballooning share of federal spending in the decades to come. What concrete measures do you propose to prevent these benefits from crowding out other spending?
2. What is your plan for redeeming Social Security's trust-fund IOUs after 2015, and does it rely on spending cuts, tax increases, or borrowing?
3. How do the middle-class tax cuts you're now pushing square with the enormous tax hikes that will soon be needed to pay for all the benefits that have been promised to seniors?
4. Given what's projected for the future of Social Security, do you think it's responsible to assure working Americans that they will retire with all of their promised benefits -- and maybe more -- without any increase in anyone's contributions?
5. Over the next 75 years, future Social Security deficits are projected to outweigh future Social Security surpluses in today's dollars by more than 20 to 1. How will your plan prevent a massive increase in federal debt?

Click here to view the full ad.

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