The at-times daily missives between the two candidates seeking the new and open 13th congressional seat continued Tuesday.
Nikki Budzinski (pictured), a Springfield Democrat, appeared at the Illinois AFL-CIO headquarters with union members and retirees to say that Regan Deering, a Decatur Republican, wants to reduce benefits to people collecting Social Security. Budzinski said Deering supports means testing for benefits; Budzinski says “means testing” is code for “cutting.”
Deering’s people provided a recording of a radio program on which Deering said she has “heard about” means testing and believes some people may support it. In that recording she does not say she wants to cut benefits.
“She is saying that people that have paid into Social Security now have to prove that they are eligible for the Social Security benefits they have paid into their entire career,” Budzinski told reporters Tuesday. “I think it’s fundamentally wrong.”
Budzinski’s news conference came one day after Deering put a spotlight on a Better Government Association report detailing Budzinski’s income, providing windfalls as a “consultant” – not a lobbyist – between government jobs. Budzinski Tuesday called Deering’s focus on Budzinski’s finances a distraction from a desperate campaign, adding she followed all ethics laws.
The new district covers parts of the Champaign, Decatur, and Springfield areas before snaking south toward St Louis.