Comparing the U.S. Senate Candidates on Retirement Issues
Wisconsin – and the nation – is facing a retirement security crisis. Many people will have inadequate income for a secure retirement. Many will only have Social Security to live on. Many will not be able to “retire” at all. Over 400,000 seniors in Wisconsin will be living in poverty by 2030. As a result, Wisconsin will need to spend an additional $3.5 billion on public assistance programs.
These problems are not self-correcting and won’t be fixed by free market “solutions.” Government must act to address the retirement crisis. This includes consolidating and simplifying related laws, better oversight of the investment industry, helping small businesses to offer retirement benefits, and creating better programs to help people prepare for retirement.
People need better retirement options that produce secure adequate retirement income for everyone. For too many people the current retirement savings options just are not working. Businesses must help and individuals must save more. People will need wise financial guidance to successfully manage their future retirements. We can not rely on the for profit financial services industry.
To better inform Wisconsin voters, Protect Our Wisconsin Retirement Security (POWRS) surveyed all the U.S. Senate candidates on retirement, Social Security and Medicare issues. We sent the survey to all the declared Democratic candidates and to the Republican incumbent.
We only received replies from four Democratic candidates: Mandela Barnes, Sarah Godlewski, Alex Lasry, and Tom Nelson.
Does not responding indicate a lack of interest in retirement issues? Does the candidate not care about the real problems facing Wisconsinites? You can draw your own conclusions.
All four responding candidates understood the retirement security crisis is real. They had good ideas for addressing the problems. Their comments included a variety of views and possible solutions. They were not just repeating the party agenda.
POWRS makes no candidate endorsements. Our objective is to inform voters to help in making their own choices. We have compiled the candidate responses into one document and posted it to our website. Read the complete, unedited candidates’ comments at www.powrs.org.