The Promise
Social Security is not a government handout. It is not welfare. It is not charity.
It is a promise — made by the United States government to every working American — that if you spend your life contributing to this country, you will not be left to struggle alone in your old age, or if you become disabled, or when you lose a spouse.
70 million
Americans depend on
Social Security today.
For most retirees, it is their single largest source of income. For millions of seniors in our community, it is the difference between dignity and poverty.
That promise is now in danger. And Maria will not let it be broken.
The Problem
Social Security’s trust funds are projected to face a serious shortfall within the next decade. If Congress does nothing, benefits could be automatically cut by roughly 20% — affecting every single person who receives a check.
This is not a secret. Washington has known about this for years. And yet Congress has done almost nothing, because fixing Social Security requires political courage — the kind that special interests and career politicians work very hard to avoid.
At the same time, the current administration is actively undermining Social Security’s infrastructure — cutting staff, disrupting operations, and making it harder for Americans to access the benefits they earned. This is unacceptable, and Maria will fight it directly.
The clock is ticking. This is not a problem we can keep kicking down the road.
What Maria Will Fight For
1. A Social Security Lock-Box
One of the most persistent abuses in Washington is Congress raiding Social Security funds to pay for other priorities. Maria will advocate for a permanent Social Security Lock-Box — a legislative firewall that prevents Social Security funds from ever being diverted for other purposes. The money workers pay into Social Security belongs to them. Period.
2. A Bipartisan Middle Class Working Group
Maria will initiate a serious, bipartisan congressional working group dedicated exclusively to the long-term solvency of Social Security. Not a committee that holds hearings and does nothing. A working group with a mandate to produce real legislative solutions — one that brings together members of Congress who are willing to put the American people ahead of their party and their donors.
3. Eliminate the Cap on Income
Here is something most Americans don’t know: right now, Social Security payroll taxes stop applying above a certain income level — meaning millionaires stop paying within a matter of days or weeks while workers pay on their whole salary, all year long. Maria supports lifting or eliminating this cap so that higher earners contribute more, just as working Americans do on every dollar they earn. This one change alone would dramatically improve Social Security’s long-term finances.
4. Expand the Contribution Base
Currently, Social Security is funded primarily through wages, but wealthy Americans earn much of their income through investments, which are not subject to FICA contributions. Maria supports exploring ways to include more investment income in the Social Security contribution base, so that the burden of keeping this promise doesn’t fall exclusively on working people who earn a paycheck.
5. Protect and Expand Benefits
Any solution to Social Security’s solvency must protect current beneficiaries completely and must not cut benefits for people who are already retired or near retirement. Maria will oppose any proposal that balances the books on the backs of seniors who have already spent a lifetime contributing to the system.
6. Defend Social Security Operations
The current effort to gut Social Security’s administrative capacity — cutting workers, closing offices, and disrupting payment systems — is an attack on the 70 million Americans who depend on it. Maria will fight every attempt to defund, privatize, or dismantle the operational infrastructure that delivers Social Security benefits to the people who earned them.
What Maria Will Oppose
- Privatization. Placing Social Security funds in the stock market exposes retirees to market crashes and Wall Street risks. Maria will not support any plan that gambles seniors’ retirement security on the stock market.
- Raising the retirement age. For people who work physical jobs — in manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and care work — raising the retirement age is a benefit cut by another name. Maria opposes it.
- Benefit cuts of any kind for current or near-retirement beneficiaries.
Social Security and the Bigger Picture
Let’s be clear about what Social Security actually is: it’s your money. Not the government’s money. Yours. You paid into it every paycheck — you were required to — on the promise that it would be there when you retired. That’s not a handout. That’s a contract.
For many seniors, that contract is the difference between getting by and getting evicted. Between filling a prescription and going without. And yet there are people in Washington who talk about cutting it, privatizing it, or raising the retirement age as if they’re doing you a favor by figuring out how to give you less of what you already paid for.
Maria won’t stand for that. Protecting Social Security isn’t a political position for her — it’s a matter of basic honesty. You held up your end of the deal. Washington should hold up its.
A Note from Maria
“I talk to seniors all across this district and the fear is real. They worked their whole lives. They paid into the system every single paycheck. And now they’re wondering whether the check will be there. That anxiety is a failure of leadership in Washington, and I intend to fix it. Social Security is a promise. I will keep it.”