(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
House progressives want to put Social Security on the midterm agenda. Good idea [1]
['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']
Date: 2022-07-14
Efforts by Republicans to shrink or privatize the program are exceedingly unpopular: 68% of voters are opposed, including 75% of Democrats, 70% of Republicans, and 59% of independents.
The legislation the CPC is pushing is from Rep. John Larson (D-CT). It would protect low-income workers and bolster benefits against inflation, among additional measures. It raises payroll taxes on high-income earners to extend the program’s solvency into the next century, and strengthen the Social Security Trust Fund.
Right now, payroll taxes are only collected on the first $142,800 of an individual’s earnings. Anything above that isn’t subject to payroll taxes. This bill would leave that cap in place for people earning up to $400,000, when it would kick in again for those earnings. That would affect only the top 0.4% of wager earners, according to the lawmakers.
That formulation fulfills President Joe Biden’s promise that he would not create new taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year. That’s a really popular idea in the Data for Progress survey. It garners support from 76% of likely voters—including 83% of Democrats, 73% of Republicans, and 73% of independents.
The bill would of course get filibustered in the Senate, but that makes it an even better idea for the House to take up. They should bring a Social Security fight to Republicans when the polling is this clear. Because Republicans are threatening the program at every turn.
The Republican Study Committee in the House just called for raising the retirement age again, three months per year from now until 2040. By then, people who were born after 1978 wouldn’t be able to receive their full Social Security benefits until age 70. That’s a big benefit cut.
On the Senate side, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has promised that “entitlement reform” (their euphemism for Social Security and Medicare cuts) would be a top priority for Republicans if they retake the Senate. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is once again pushing his plan to force workers to steal from their future Social Security benefits in order to get the parental leave they’ll need now that so many states are going to force them to bear children.
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida has his plan, developed for the National Republican Senate Committee he heads up—the committee that is charged with electing Republicans to the chamber—that would simply do away with the programs, along with pretty much everything else. Scott’s big idea is that everything ever passed by the Congress expires after five years and has to be passed again. A Republican Senate is most definitely not going to recreate Social Security.
So the House CPC is on to something in pushing this legislation, which might make for a good September project for congressional Democrats. Fighting for Social Security is always good politics, as much as it is good policy.
Jason Bresler, who was political director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2018 wave that saw the party retake the House joins the The Downballot podcast
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/14/2110220/-House-progressives-want-to-put-Social-Security-on-the-midterm-agenda-Good-idea
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
