Senior Citizens Tax Elimination Act

     Making sure that Iowa seniors who have worked hard and played by the rules their whole lives get the benefits they have earned was one of the reasons I ran for Congress. That’s why I am a co-sponsor of the Senior Citizens Tax Elimination Act, H.R. 2552, which will end the double taxation of our Seniors’ Social Security benefits. With the government collecting all time record tax revenues, there is no reason why politicians in D.C. should hurt seniors by taxing Social Security benefits twice.

     I have seen first hand that Washington, D.C. has a serious spending problem. Career politicians continue to run up massive deficits and add trillions to our debt. The solution to this problem is not to bail out the politicians by taxing – for the second time – Social Security benefits that were paid for by taxes in the first place. Rather, we need to increase revenues by growing the economy, moderate wasteful spending, and grow our tax base by cleaning up welfare abuse.

     For close to a half-century, your Social Security benefits were not taxed because there was a common sense understanding that Social Security benefits are not traditional wages. The money in Social Security had already been paid to the government over a lifetime of working and paying taxes, and it is wrong to take money out of our seniors’ pockets by taxing it again. Former Congressman Ron Paul was right when he said, “Many Americans don’t realize that Social Security benefits were not taxed until the 1980s. The whole process is nothing more than a circular subterfuge that allows Congress to reduce Social Security benefits by stealth. Nobody in Congress claims they want to reduce benefits, but that's exactly what happens when benefits are taxed.”

     Taxing benefits is reducing benefits, and it is time that we put an end to this and honor our promises to seniors who have spent their lifetime paying into the system and playing by the rules. That is why I am a proud original co-sponsor of the Senior Citizens Tax Elimination Act and will work hard to see this common sense bill pass the U.S. House.