I am chairing the recently launched Seniors for Casey coalition because Pennsylvanians need a leader like Senator Bob Casey who has been a champion for seniors. He has worked across the aisle to protect Social Security and Medicare, passed legislation to lower prescription drug prices, brought transparency and accountability to our nation’s nursing homes, and fought to protect seniors from financial scams.
So, I am asking all concerned Pennsylvanians to vote for Senator Bob Casey’s 2024 re-election. I have known and trusted Bob Casey long before he first ran for U.S. Senator in 2007. Prior to his run for Senator, Bob spent time as a teacher in Philadelphia. I met him shortly after he started as a new teacher.
As an experienced leader and advocate, I have witnessed Senator Casey’s efforts to fight for seniors as Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. Senator Casey has led efforts to ensure that our nation’s seniors have the resources and support they need in their older years. His Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Act became law in July 2018 and created a federal advisory council charged with developing a one-stop-shop of information to help grandparents raising grandchildren and other kinship caregivers raising relative children address challenges that they may face.
I was born just after Social Security was adopted in 1935. At that time, America was suffering economic and social stresses that almost ended our capital-based free market economy. Our country was utterly unprepared to deal with the consequences from the Great Depression. Suddenly, tens of millions of Americans, including millions of seniors, found themselves hung out to dry – retirement and savings accounts completely wiped out.
I retired as Business Operations Executive Director, but started my work career as a truck driver. I was mentored by my original employers, who had served in WWII, and encouraged by them to develop expertise in logistical systems. As I gained experience, subsequent employers encouraged me to engage in civic and political organizations that they considered a duty for those of us who gained from their patriotism.
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That’s why at 85 years old, I am deeply involved in organizations that are trying to protect Social Security, and it is why I am now chairing the Bob Casey for Seniors coalition. I want to ensure Pennsylvanians are electing someone like Senator Casey who’s on the side of seniors and will fight for us in Washington.
My family benefited when FDR created Social Security, an innovative, self-funded economic security insurance plan that provided an employer-worker funded retirement plan. Social Security has helped contribute to America’s leadership as a humane and productive nation. By building a society that invested in working families, my father’s generation had funds to invest in home ownership helping them retire with less impact on their children’s future economic progress.
While my generation and my parents generation benefitted from and understood the importance of safeguarding Social Security, this critical safety net is at risk for our children.
To this day, cynical political manipulators, including Senator Casey’s opponent, David McCormick, want to weaken Social Security, making it harder for our children to secure their financial future. McCormick does not want to fully fund Social Security. Instead, he wants to cut this important program to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy.
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Social Security has been in place for 88 years and we should never abandon the foundational support that it has provided to millions of families. It is dangerous and wrong to cut it and abandon future generations of our children. Even McCormick’s father agrees that we cannot abandon the promises our country has made to people who have been paying into Social Security their entire lives. He let his son know that he is against his crusade to significantly weaken the program.
Re-electing Senator Bob Casey to the Senate will assure the continuity of Social Security, a crucial lifeline for so many Pennsylvanians. It’s why I’ll be voting for him this November and will be encouraging every Pennsylvanian as chair of Seniors for Casey to cast their vote for him.
