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S-O-S-S, Save our Social Security. Obama knows - VOTE Democrats to the Senate and Congress [1]
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Date: 2022-11-01
SOCIAL SECURITY and MEDICARE programs have lowered the poverty rate for the elderly, age 65+. Social Security is the single most successful anti-poverty program for the elderly ever enacted in the US. Data source:
https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v70n3/v70n3p1.html. Don't let a GOP Congress cut the benefits.
It is time for call for S-O-S-S. The most effective program, ever, to lower poverty, Social Security — plus Medicare — will be on the chopping block if Republicans gain leverage and control of Congress. Sen. Mitch McConnell, Sen. Ron Johnson, Marco Rubio, and Republicans in Congress have been gunning for it for years, all in the name of “reform.”
After the Tax Cuts of 2017 swelled the US deficits, McConnell touted “entitlement reform, and we’re talking about Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid” — but he fretted it couldn’t get done without “bipartisan” buy-in, with Congress and the White house of different parties, in order to avoid the blowback and blame for Republicans, especially when a Republican was in the White House.
Sen. Rick Scott, who is heading the committee aiming to elect Republicans to the Senate, has proposed this summer that Social Security should sunset after five years, and need to be reauthorized anew by Congress.
“AMERICANS DESERVE TO KNOW WHAT WE WILL DO WHEN GIVEN THE CHANCE TO GOVERN.”— RICK SCOTT All federal legislation sunsets in five years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.
Republicans have floated raising the retirement age for future retirees, from 67 to 70 — which would mean a percentage benefit cut for everyone who retires earlier, at 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, …. .
For perspective on the impact of Social Security retirement benefits, here’s a more up-to-date version of graph of the rate of poverty of the elderly, through they year 2019.
But Democrats have a much better idea, to extend the solvency of the Social Security trust fund, so that it’s payments could remain at 100%, beyond the next 12 years.
The Social Security 2100 bill, introduced by Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, would extend to top earners who receive >$400,000 salary, the same FICA tax the rest of us all have to pay to fund Social Security. (RIght now, it’s been capped so it’s only paid as a tax on salary up to $147,000.) In the House, the Social Security 2100 bill is sponsored by Rep. John Larson (D-CT), with 202 Democratic cosponsors. The bill has several important features, reduces the widow penalty, and reduces the number of taxpayers who pay federal income tax on their retirement benefits. (I actually felt the bill that Larson introduced the previous year would have been even more effective, was less ambitious, and had a longer actuarial balance period.)
The Social Security 2100 bill is written to avoid benefit reductions, yet still expand the financial footing of the nation’s more important retirement fund.
See also —
We’re the grandsons of Social Security’s founders. Here’s why it’s worth saving Social Security is a critical lifeline for millions of Pennsylvanians. It should be strengthened and protected for the future By Henry Scott Wallace, James Roosevelt, Jr., and Tomlin Perkins Coggeshal October 29, 2022 …. This debate means a lot to us. Our grandfathers – President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Vice President Henry A. Wallace – together with Labor Secretary Francis Perkins, created Social Security, on which Medicare’s funding was modeled. Wallace helped Perkins design Social Security. FDR said the payroll tax was key to the success of Social Security: It gives workers “a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program.” Republican President Dwight Eisenhower was equally blunt. There may be “a tiny splinter group” of politicians who want to mess with Social Security, he wrote, but “their number is negligible and they are stupid.” …. So the obvious question is not how to betray Social Security’s promise, but how to improve it. The simplest solution comes from the little-known fact that the richer you are, the less payroll tax you pay. Earned income above $147,000 per year is completely exempt. Eliminate this cap and make rich people pay the same rate as everybody else. Use the added revenues to improve benefits and services, and strengthen long-term solvency.
The full article, by the grandsons of the founders of Social Security, taking issue with Rick Scott, Mehmet Oz, and Republicans in Pennsylvania, is worth a quick read.
Social Security “is a promise that we, in the spirit of our New Deal ancestors, believe is worth not only preserving, but strengthening.”
S-O-S-S — it needs to be the message of every Democratic candidate, starting now.
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