16th District Congressional Candidates: Social Security

In the race for the 16th Congressional District seat, Republican Adam Kinzinger is facing Democrat Wanda Rohl.  Our question: How will you work for the people of Illinois to assure them that Social Security will be there when they retire?

Adam Kinzinger: Social Security is actually one of the easier issues to solve. I think if you throw some people in a room, in just a few minutes you can have the solution. The problem is Republicans and Democrats have got to stop politicizing the issue. We've seen, even in this presidential race when it comes to the issue of what they call, entitlement spending; it's always looking for the opportunity to attack the other person.

  Social Security can be fixed, there are great ideas on both sides of the aisle, but both sides are going to have to come together and say, "We're going to put our weapons down and figure out how to fix this." It's the easiest of the problems I think is out there to solve.

Wanda Rohl: You know, as someone who ended up on the social safety net nine years ago, I never thought that Social Security would be there for me either. You know, you listen to those that say it's going broke. Right now, if you left it alone, it would be fine for about 22 years. But, we honestly need to take the cap off.

  I pay Social Security Tax on 100-percent of my income because I make less than 110-thousand dollars a year. The minute you start making more than 110,000 dollars a year, you start paying less in percentage. It's about being responsible. It's an insurance program and that's what needs to be done. It needs to be paid for. If that means yes, we need to raise that, then we have to.