One out of every seven elderly widows in this country lives in poverty, in spite of Social Security. These are women who worked their whole lives supporting their families in paid and unpaid work, raising children and grandchildren and caring for loved ones, only to end up surviving on less than $690 a month. Shortchanging widows is not consistent with the fundamental purposes of Social Security, and it is high time we fix the problem. þþþþWe strongly support the amendment to H.R. 4070 offered by Rep. Matsui today. His amendment would address the critical needs of these women. Most importantly, it increases the widow benefits under Social Security to 75 percent of what a couple's total benefit is before a husband dies, up to $1,200 per month. Under current law, some widows get as little as half of the couple's benefit and none get more than two-thirds of the combined benefit. Rep. Matsui's amendment addresses this shortfall in Social Security by increasing benefits for more than 4 million elderly.þþþþRep. Matsui would pay for these important new widows protections with general revenue that could be made available by capping future cuts in the highest income tax rate. This part of the Bush tax cut benefits only the wealthiest individuals, affecting just the top 0.06 percent of taxpayers. They make, on average, $1 million a year. That's more than 121 times a poverty-level income for an elderly widow. þþþþWith the Matsui amendment, Congress has a chance to get its values straight. American voters don't want more tax cuts for millionaires-such as the Republican leadership in the House pushed through last week-and they don't want politicians to gamble with their retirement security-such as the Administration would do by draining trillions of dollars out of Social Security to pay for privatization. Congress should do the right thing, and support the Matsui amendment.
By: John J. Sweeney, AFL-CIO President
