With health care and other costs of living on the rise, Kentucky’s seniors need a guarantee that their Social Security, savings, and pensions will be 100% secure. George W. Bush and Mitch McConnell have already tried to privatize Social Security, endangering that vital, guaranteed benefit to our seniors. As your Senator, I will oppose all attempts to privatize Social Security, fight to guarantee that corporations make good on their pension promises to workers, and push to lower prescription drug prices. Don’t Gamble With Our Future Social Security is a public trust and we must not break that trust. Mitch McConnell is a strong supporter of George W. Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security and reduce the guaranteed benefits paid to Kentucky seniors. McConnell supported diverting guaranteed funding for Social Security into risky private accounts, further depleting a shrinking Social Security trust fund that, according to a recent report, will be exhausted by the year 2041. Mitch McConnell and his friends in Washington want to roll the dice with your guaranteed benefits, but the risk is too great. Social Security should not be privatized. Protect Pensions from Corporate Greed and Mismanagement We need to protect pensions for American workers. To do so we must change the bankruptcy laws, putting workers’ retirement accounts ahead of protecting lender’s profits. We must require more transparency in pension investments and make sure that companies place a higher priority at meeting pension obligations than on issuing large executive bonuses. Make Medicare and the Prescription Drug Benefit Work for Seniors, Not Drug Companies Kentucky’s seniors deserve access to quality, affordable medical care. When George W. Bush, Mitch McConnell, and the big drug company lobbyists worked together to change Medicare in 2003, they included billions of dollars in loopholes that benefitted the drug companies. Of course, Mitch McConnell is the beneficiary of campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, which may explain why he is putting the drug companies ahead of the public. Mitch McConnell and the Bush Administration’s inaction on ensuring the solvency of the Medicare system have led to the near depletion of resources in the Medicare trust fund. A recent study by the Social Security and Medicare trustees predicts that the Medicare trust fund, used to pay for hospital care, will run out of money by the year 2019. We can’t let that happen. We must fight to change the Medicare system and close the loopholes that prevent Medicare from using its negotiating power to purchase drugs at a lower cost and prohibit the re-importation of safe prescription drugs from Canada. Kentucky’s seniors should not have to pay exorbitantly high prices for their prescription drugs. -Bruce Lunsford, Democrat for U.S. Senator --Bruce Lunsford for U.S. Senate Campaign; courtesy of Frank Leidermann, Acting Editor