Rep. Jeff Duncan Says We Are ‘A Sovereign Nation and We Need to Secure Our Border.’

WASHINGTON DC, Oct 4 — After 14 years of service, Rep. Jeff Duncan [R-SC] is retiring.  As he put it, “at some point in a career, one needs to step aside and allow others to bring fresh ideas and abilities.” But retirement hasn’t stopped him from urging us to focus on our nation’s need to “secure our borders and ensure that taxpayer-funded programs like Social Security remain for those who’ve earned them.” In a new Better For America interview with Rebecca Weber, CEO of the Association of Mature American Citizens, he declared that “protecting Social Security is more important now than ever.”

According to Congressman Duncan, “There’s a strong concern about the future insolvency of the Social Security Trust Fund and Social Security in general. We’re already having to draw money out of the general fund for the nation just to make up for some shortfalls.” Meanwhile, he said, “Illegal aliens who have come into our country are having access to Social Security benefits. And that’s wrong. They’ve never paid a dime into it. Hardworking Americans who have paid incrementally throughout their working careers, hoping to have Social Security benefits, now risk the possibility of not receiving benefits or receiving a much-reduced benefit than they expected. Not only illegals, but others are drawing Social Security benefits although they never paid a dime into it. Ultimately Congress will have to address how we’re going to make sure that the Social Security fund is solvent for this generation of retirees and for future generations. We want to make sure that our nation can take care of seniors who are drawing benefits today, and also for future generations that will continue to pay into the fund.”

Meanwhile, Duncan noted, that the United States is “a sovereign nation and we need to secure our border.  We need to be able to determine who comes in. Illegal immigration is called illegal because it’s illegal to violate our sovereignty and enter our country and so we have to secure our border, but the border has doors that allow people to enter and exit. But they should come in with permission to work or visit or go to school under a visa program. But the illegality of it is where the problem really lies. There are a lot of people in our country who have entered via an open border and we have no idea who they are. We have no idea who’s here. The second thing is, we know that terrorists, people on the no-fly list, and terrorist watch list, have tried to enter our country or been released in our country. It is beyond comprehension to me. But if you’re on the terrorist watch list, or on the no-fly list, you should not be allowed in the country. And, if you’re apprehended, either at the border or within the confines of the nation, you need to be deported immediately.”

Duncan said, “I think most Americans believe that only Americans should vote in United States elections.”  And that’s what the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act [the SAVE Act] is all about; it requires voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship at the time of registration. “I talk to a lot of folks around the nation because I travel a lot and they truly believe that only Americans should vote in American elections. And Congress has got to step up. We tried to include it in a must-pass piece of legislation, the continuing resolution to fund government, but Chuck Schumer and the Democrats on the Senate side rejected that, and we couldn’t get a vote. At the end of the day, however, we passed the SAVE Act in the House, but the Senate is sitting on it so we’re trying them again. It’s important for the nation, and I hope the next Congress will deal with it and deal with it swiftly so that it will apply to the midterms and ultimately to all U.S. elections.”

John Grimaldi served on the first non-partisan communications department in the New York State Assembly and is a founding member of the Board of Directors of Priva Technologies, Inc. He has served for more than thirty years as a Trustee of Daytop Village Foundation, which oversees a worldwide drug rehabilitation network.