Pledging to preserve Social Security and Medicare, U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson this week put on a pair of boxing gloves to symbolize her vow to fight any proposals to cut benefits for those programs.
Meanwhile, it appears her Republican challenger in the November election, who waited seven weeks for Halvorson, D-Crete, to get in the ring for face-to-face debates will get his chance.
The gloves were given to Halvorson by Max Richtman, executive vice president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, a bipartisan special-interest group that endorsed the freshman congresswoman Tuesday in her race for re-election against challenger Adam Kinzinger.
During a campaign stop in Ottawa to announce the endorsement, Halvorson criticized Kinzinger for taking money from groups such as Americans for Prosperity that have led efforts to privatize Social Security and Medicare.
According to FactCheck.org, Americans for Prosperity is a Republican/conservative-leaning independent political organization that advocates for less government spending. The organization's website does not specifically list Social Security or Medicare as part of its mission statement.
Earlier this year, Halvorson said Kinzinger suggested Social Security be capped at the rate of inflation and Congress consider raising the retirement age -– both of which Halvorson said she opposes.
Specifically, her campaign issued a release this week that included three published quotes made prior to the February primary election in which Kinzinger suggested Social Security should be capped at the rate of inflation.
Kinzinger's website -- which the Halvorson campaign contends was updated after his primary win -- addresses Social Security.
"We need to ensure that promises made are promises kept to our seniors," Kinzinger writes on the site. "I do not support privatizing Social Security. I do not support increasing the payroll tax nor the retirement age. It is absolutely wrong to change the rules on seniors when many are living paycheck to paycheck. Surely, members of both political parties can set aside an issue as important as this, take out the politics and the scare tactics and focus on fixing the longevity of Social Security. Any candidate for Congress who tries to demagogue this issue by using scare tactics should truly be ashamed of themselves as they are only looking out for their own failed political career"
Kinzinger repeated that stance Wednesday when he told Ottawa Delivered that Halvorson is "trying to scare seniors" and said he hasn't entertained the ideas of privatizing Social Security or raising the retirement age.
Halvorson on Friday announced she will debate with Kinzinger.
The candidates will appear before the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board on Oct. 5 for a joint endorsement session that will be posted online, a second meeting at Illinois State University in Normal, Ill. on Oct. 12; and a third debate hosted by WCMY-AM in Ottawa on Oct. 13.
