Mitch Perry
AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka was in Tampa Tuesday, where he participated in a rally outside the Westshore district offices of Marco Rubio, calling on the Florida senator to sign a pledge to protect Social Security.
“Look, Marco isn’t upstairs in his office today because he doesn’t show up very often,” Trumka began his remarks while standing before a podium placed on a narrow strip of sidewalk on West Kennedy Boulevard. Security officials demanded protesters stand there, as far away as possible from the building where Rubio’s office is located in without being on the street.
“He doesn’t show up to vote in the Senate, and quite frankly, that’s probably a good thing,” Trumka added, “because every time he does show up, he votes against the interests of working people.”
(After this story was posted, a spokesman for Senator Rubio provided this information. “Senator Rubio has 8 official offices across the state, and he was in Jacksonville today to visit American Valley Aviation, host a roundtable with local small business leaders, and discuss hurricane preparations.”).
Rubio is running for re-election to his Senate seat against Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy. Virtually every poll taken of the race shows the GOP incumbent with at least a solid five-point lead (give or take) over Murphy with five weeks to go before Election Day.
Today’s protest was the third held in front of a local Rubio office by the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans, the state chapter of the Washington D.C.-based progressive group that advocates for seniors and union members.
Previous press events calling Rubio to sign the group’s “pledge” were held in Tallahassee and Jacksonville.
Currently, Social Security’s trust fund is expected to run dry in 2033 — at which point, the agency will rely on payroll taxes to fund 77 percent of promised benefits.
Pledge activists want Rubio to sign calls for opposing “every effort” to privatize, cut benefits, or raise the retirement age for Social Security, as well as agreeing to expand the program.
On Tuesday, activists accused Rubio of supporting changes to privatize the program, raise the retirement age, reduce the cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA), and lower benefits for Social Security.
In a 2014 speech to the National Press Club in Washington, Rubio laid out his plan for strengthening Social Security. He called for not touching the retirement age for workers over 55, but Rubio did propose gradually increasing the retirement age for those under that threshold. The senator also proposed reducing the growth of benefits for higher-income seniors, though Rubio didn’t spell out that how would happen.
Rubio also proposed eliminating the tax for any workers who have reached retirement age, a move he said would encourage seniors who can keep working and help them beef up their savings.
When asked by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace in 2010 if he would support changing cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security beneficiaries, Rubio said: “I think all of that has to be on the table, including the way we index increases in cost of living. All of these issues have to be on the table … There have to be options that I would be open to.”
“Patrick Murphy’s liberal supporters are distorting Marco’s positions, just like Murphy distorted his own resume,” said Rubio campaign spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas. “Marco’s own mother relies on Social Security as her sole source of income. Marco would never do anything to hurt his mother or the millions of Florida seniors who depend on Social Security and Medicare, and he’ll continue to fight to strengthen the programs for future generations.”
“You know Marco Rubio or his spokesperson, always says when we leave his office that ‘my mother is on Social Security, and I would never do anything to hurt my mother,'” said Barbara DeVane, the secretary for the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans. “But he doesn’t give a hoot about young workers and people who are still working. And who need to know that when they retire, they are going to have Social Security. Privatizing it will not give them that economic security.”
Advocates repeated Tuesday that Rubio supports privatization, but officials for the senator say that’s not accurate. They cited a statement he made during his 2010 U.S. Senate campaign that,” privatization of the accounts has come and gone, (but) there are other alternatives, such as (raising) the retirement age, how you adjust payments in the future, ‘need’ measures, et cetera.”
Toni Van Pelt with the National Organization for Women called on Rubio to support the Strengthening Social Security Act of 2016, which would increase monthly insurance benefits for widows and widowers, and adjust the means for calculating seniors’ cost-of-living requirements.
“Women are especially vulnerable to financial insecurity during the retirement years,” Van Pelt said. “After a lifetime spent working on lower wages than men, many rely on Social Security for support. For more than 30 percent of female beneficiaries over 65, Social Security is virtually their only source of income.”
Trumka and the AFL-CIO are pulling out all the stops in trying to help get Murphy elected to the Senate. He blasted Rubio for several other perceived transgressions that transcend the Social Security issue.
“Too many times he doesn’t even show up for the job, and when he does, he’s dangerous because … listen to this,” he said. “Marco Rubio opposes equal pay for women. He opposes addressing climate change. He’s against building a relationship with Cuba. He’s opposed raising the minimum wage. He’s opposed to raising taxes on the wealthy. He’s opposed to a pathway to citizenship. Marco Rubio supported massive cuts to public education. He supported fast track (for trade deals).”
