After five months of town-hall meetings, speeches, and trips across the country, it is clear the President’s attempt to dismantle Social Security has lost its steam. The Administration refuses to present a detailed plan to Congress and the American public increasingly opposes privatizing the retirement program. While our efforts to save Social Security have been successful to date, we need your continued support to ensure its long-term vitality. That is why my colleagues and I are launching a campaign to save Social Security for rural America. By traveling to small towns and communities across the country, we want to make it clear that privatization of Social Security would devastate the economic independence of rural America.

The President’s plan to cut Social Security benefits by as much as 40% would hit rural communities especially hard. Rural America is home to over 90% of the counties in the country with the highest population of senior citizens. Under the President’s plan, these rural seniors could lose as much as $7,000 of income a year in Social Security benefits. That amount is enough to cover a senior’s food and health care expenses for a year or three-fourths of what the average senior spends on housing.

Our rural towns and communities also have many more individuals living with disabilities that depend on Social Security’s disability insurance. Rural workers perform physically demanding jobs and have higher rates of injury than their counterparts in the city. We should not penalize the Arkansas rice farmer who toiled for 25 years in the heat and is now unable to work, or the nurse who stood on her feet for seemingly endless 12 hour shifts and no longer has the strength to continue. These individuals wore themselves out from years of hard work and deserve income security in their remaining years. Yet despite earlier promises, the Administration remains open to cutting Social Security disability benefits. Such a cut would leave millions of individuals without adequate income at a time they need assistance the most.

Since the President announced his plans to privatize Social Security, I have met with hundreds of Arkansas’ citizens and I have received thousands of letters opposing his plan. Although the stories are different, the message is the same. These hard-working families have earned their Social Security benefits and do not want to gamble their retirement savings on the stock market. Some depend on Social Security as their only source of income, and others rely on benefits to retire in comfort. I have heard the voices of rural America, and I know they want Social Security privatization off the table.

Our rural communities demand meaningful reforms that will carry Social Security into the next generation. We want a program that will allow seniors to enjoy their golden years without passing on trillions of dollars in debt to their children and grandchildren. We want to consider the consequences of our actions and resist rushing into a decision that will jeopardize the economic security of millions of Americans. While we search for the best reform, we must do all that we can to pay down the national debt and return the money we have borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund. The best way to preserve the character of Social Security and our national economy is to stop spending more money than we take in.