Congressman Rob Woodall spoke at the noon meeting of the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville on March 10. Woodall, Representative for the 7th District of Georgia, focused his discussion on the future of Social Security, which he characterized as the most clear-cut and manageable of the many problems currently facing the U. S government. After featured quotations from Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King, Jr., he discussed the extreme division between liberals and conservatives in Washington, D. C., and while conceding that representatives were obligated to support the views of their constituency, he asserted that those in Washington should be Americans first, and then Democrats or Republicans. He believes many tough decisions have to be made, some of which may hurt, but they will hurt less now than they will for later generations.
Focusing on Social Security, he described the coming crisis with rise in numbers of workers being much less than the rise in numbers of those who will want to draw benefits in the near future. He outlined options for saving Social Security: increasing the payroll tax 1, 2, or 3% over varied periods of time, eliminating the taxable maximum, raising the years of earning to 68 or 70, and basing COLA on chained CPI. He solicited responses from the audience on these various options. A discussion ranging from letting the system fail to means testing of benefits followed. Woodall concluded his presentation with a call for constituents to push their Representatives to do something really hard, something that may hurt in the short term but that would be good for America in the long term. He asserted that we should care more about solving our problems than about giving blame.
Rep. Woodall serves on the House Committee on Rules, the House Budget Committee, and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He is the Chairman of the Republican Study Committee’s Budget and Spending Task Force. He has served as the 7th District Representative since 2010. He invited constituents to contact him with questions or suggestions for solutions at www.woodall.house.gov and at 202-225-4277.