NJ5 Candidate Arati Kreibich Slams Josh Gottheimer for Silence on Social Security Bill

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

GLEN ROCK NJ, Arati Kreibich, a Glen Rock Councilmember and a Democratic candidate for New Jersey’s 5th district House seat, stood with seniors today to support a bill to improve and stabilize Social Security. The Social Security 2100 Act increases benefits for all current and future Social Security recipients. It cuts taxes for nearly 12 million seniors while ensuring the system’s solvency through the year 2092. The benefit increases are paid for in part by payroll tax increases for the top 0.4 percent highest income earners in the country.

The bill, which was introduced in January, has been co-sponsored by more than 200 members of the House. So far Kreibich’s primary opponent, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, has withheld his support. Gottheimer had previously promised he would work tirelessly to help seniors in the district, many of whom struggle to keep up with the district’s high cost of living.

“We have a bill on the table that’s designed to address exactly those campaign promises that he made,” Kreibich said. “So why isn’t he supporting it?”

Kreibich, who spoke to a crowd of seniors at a senior housing complex at 1 Glen Ave in Glen Rock, said that Gottheimer’s reluctance stems from the payroll tax hike affecting the wealthiest people in the country, who happen to include his donors.

“Congressman Gottheimer likes to talk about moochers — he talks about moocher states who he blames for our New Jersey’s high taxes. Now who he means are people who are on social security, people on SNAP benefits, the poor and the working class in Alabama, and Mississippi and states like that,” Kreibich said. “Those aren’t the people who are really mooching off of us. The people who are really mooching off of the seniors in our district are the wealthiest who are not paying their fair share…The real moochers are the corporations who are lobbying Washington to keep their taxes low and our taxes high.”

Jeanne Theisen, a local activist and NJ5 constituent, joined Kreibich at the event. She later noted that Gottheimer’s leadership of the Problem Solvers Caucus also presented a hurdle to his support of the Social Security bill. The group claims to be bipartisan, but in reality gives “political cover to lawmakers with conservative voting records” while accomplishing very little otherwise, as the Washington Post reported last year.

“Who is he working for?” Theisen asked. “Voters in NJ-5 or the Problem Solvers Caucus?”