NEWS RELEASE
April 5, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kim Geveden
(502) 682-2010
[email protected]
Annette Lee
(502) 498-4008x230
[email protected]
Paul and Conway Both Express Support For Raising Retirement Age
FRANKFORT --- In a video released today, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, Dr. Daniel Mongiardo called on Republican frontrunner Rand Paul, who describes himself as the national Tea Party’s messenger, to state whether he supports Tea Party leaders' call to eliminate Social Security, which provides financial security for more than 800,000 Kentucky seniors.
“Rand Paul says he is the messenger for the Tea Party. Well, the Tea Party’s message to Kentucky seniors is drop dead when it comes to Social Security. Tea Party leaders want to abolish Social Security. The only question is whether Rand Paul embraces their extreme far-right view,” asked Mongiardo.
In an interview with Larry King last week, national Tea Party leaders Dana Loesch, founder of the Tea Party Movement in St. Louis and Wayne Allyn Root, former Libertarian Vice Presidential Candidate, expressed support for eliminating Social Security.
King: Would anyone turn away Social Security now? Would you do away with it?
Loesch: I would. Yes.
King: You would?
Loesch: Yes. Absolutely.
King: Would you do away with it Wayne?
Root: I’d certainly like to. At best, I would do away with it because I could find better ways to spend and save my own $15,000 a year.
In the video, Mongiardo used King’s interview with Tea Party leaders and clips from Paul’s announcement that he was running for U.S. Senate as a messenger for the Tea Party.
Of the leading Democratic candidates, only Mongiardo has consistently opposed cutting Social Security benefits or raising the retirement age. In his failed 2002 congressional campaign, Jack Conway suggested cutting Social Security benefits and raising the retirement age [Courier-Journal 7/30/02 & CNN 10/9/02]. On September 29, Paul also indicated his support for raising the retirement age to 70.