Senator Diane Feinstein in the San Francisco Chronicle:
Half of all American workers today are not covered by retirement plans. For them, Social Security is it.
More than 4.3 million people receive Social Security benefits in California, including 860,000 of them with no other source of income. We have the highest cost of living in the nation. When we produce new jobs, more than likely they are part-time and minimum wage without adequate pension and retirement benefits. Keeping Social Security intact has become more important than ever.
For reference, Hawai’i has 195,340 recipients as of December 2003. If you’re interested in learning how many recipients are in your state, click here.