WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and progressive Democrats On Monday, a bill was reintroduced to raise Social Security retirement benefits and shore up the program’s finances solely by taxing corporations and the wealthy.
Sanders introduced similar bills before, even in 2022. However, the latest version comes amid national debate. Social Security Between President Joe Biden & congressional Republicans.
Florida Senator. Rick Scott’s plan To force Congress to renew federal programs at least every five years, and to a House GOP plan to raise the program’s eligibility age, Biden has accused Republicans of wanting to use “debt ceiling” Tender negotiations are underway to reduce the popularity of the program. TThe GOP strongly denied it. Social Security in debt-ceiling talks — a concession that Biden sounded Acceptable to be accepted at last week’s State of the Union address.
Sanders’ legislation pushes the boundaries of the present debate over Social Security You can go even further left by asking Republicans how they feel about the idea of bigger tax cuts and better benefits.
“At a time when nearly half of older Americans have no retirement savings and almost 50 percent of our nation’s seniors are trying to survive on an income of less than $25,000 a year, our job is not to cut Social Security,” Sanders spoke in a statement. “Our job is to expand Social Security so that every senior in America can retire with the dignity that they deserve and every person with a disability can live with the security they need.”
Sanders’ Social Security Expansion Act is unlikely to become law, but it lays down a marker for the progressive position — namely that there’s no need to cut future benefits in order close the gap between the program’s projected spending and revenue. The bill serves as an implicit response to complaints from conservative policy experts that the program’s funding gap cannot be closed entirely through tax increases on high earners.
Brian Riedl, a fiscal policy scholar at the conservative Manhattan Institute, acknowledged last week that Sanders’ 2022 proposal, which is identical to the new one, would extend the program’s solvency for a few decades.
Riedl? wrote on Twitter, “That leaves few ‘tax the rich’ options to close the Medicare gap that is 2-3 times larger. The math doesn’t work.”
This program is unlike most federal programs. Social Security It is completely self-funded and cannot borrow money to pay for promised benefits.
Due to the continuing retirement of the large Baby Boomer population, revenue for the program will not be sufficient to cover future benefits. If Congress doesn’t make any modifications to the program Social Security Only enough money is available to cover 80% the benefits scheduled. beginning in 2035. This would result in a 20% reduction across the board in benefits.
To ensure the program can pay out future benefits and then some, Sanders proposes subjecting earnings over $250,000 to the 12.4% payroll tax while not counting the new taxed earnings toward a person’s benefits. Only $160,200 worth of wages is currently subject to payroll taxes. Sanders also proposes that other taxes be imposed, including the subjecting of investment income above $200,000 to payroll tax.
Sanders released a letter Monday Social Security’s Office of the Chief Actuary declaring that his legislation “would extend the ability of the [Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance] program to pay scheduled benefits in full and on time throughout the 75-year projection period.”
In addition, the new revenue Sanders’ bill would generate for Social Security This allows him to finance an even more generous benefit formula, which would boost the benefits for low- and medium-income earners by around 15%. He would also tie the size of benefits to a consumer price index designed to account for seniors’ higher living costs.
Republicans have signaled since last year that they would demand major cuts to federal spending in exchange for supporting legislation to raise the federal government’s borrowing limit this year. Last month, the Treasury Department exceeded its borrowing limit and had to resort to “extraordinary measures” in order to pay the government’s bills. If the cap isn’t lifted, the government could fail to make payments to bondholders and even beneficiaries of federal programs like Social Security. It could lead to a financial crisis or recession.
Kevin McCarthy (Republican from California), House Speaker, has spoken several times in the past weeks. Social Security Medicare and Medicare are both important. “off the table” Despite lawmakers like Jodey Arrington, Chair of the House Budget Committee (Republican from Texas), saying they should be included in negotiations about debt ceilings,
In hallway interviews, Republican lawmakers last week said they don’t want to touch the programs, but that Congress will eventually have to do something — and that Democrats Future bargains will require that benefits cuts be supported.
“There’s no question, long term, that Social Security and Medicare are going bankrupt within 10 years,” The Sunday Review was informed last week by Rep. Bob Good, R-Va. “Nobody is talking … about cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits for those retired now, nearing retirement, but long term, it’s going to have to be reformed to make it solvent for the future.”
Rep. Dusty Johnson (R.S.D.Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.
“What we know is that doing nothing guarantees insolvency,” Johnson spoke. “We know that any one solution is going to be unpopular with half of America. And so there probably is going to be a comprehensive solution here that’s going to take a few ideas from the right and a few ideas from the left to really get us to a responsible place.”
