Liberal senators push to expand Social Security
BY AARON BLAKE
As some Republicans in Congress push to scale back and otherwise reform entitlement programs, a pair of liberal senators are pushing to expand one of the programs — Social Security.
Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) are spearheading the effort, which they say would increase benefits for all
Social Security beneficiaries by about $70 per month, change the cost-of-living calculation for benefits, and increase the amount that the wealthiest Americans pay into the program.
Social Security taxes are currently capped at the first $113,700 of someone's income. Brown and Harkin say the tax increase would help sustain the program, which is solvent but is on track for significant deficits in future decades.
"Seniors have spent a lifetime paying into Social Security, but as the cost of living continues to rise, the budgets of many are stretched to the breaking point," Brown said in a statement. "That is why Congress needs to do more to ensure that our seniors receive the benefits they’ve earned so that they can continue to retire with dignity. The Strengthening Social Security Act of 2013 would do this by expanding benefits, strengthening the program’s future and making retirement more secure for all Americans."
Brown and Harkin have also launched a petition, in tandem with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/11/05/liberal-senators-push-to-expand-social-security/
= new reply since forum marked as read
To all fellow Liberals............
Without one I may have to sell my home..living on the edge...don't want to fall off!
Here's to Harkin and Brown. 
Now we have two more Senators that are interested in strengthening SS. I've been trying for a long time now to generate some momentum for a "Lift The Cap" campaign. I get a couple of responses and a couple of Recommends - but I never seem to generate much momentum to make this happen. Is it a bad idea or are people just not motivated to make such a thing happen? I don't know.
Anyway - I have what I think is a very effective and easy way to get the word out and get support of the American People to "Lift The Cap".
Please check out this link as it explains it all:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023871310
It explains an easy thing that we all can do to send a message to Congress. All it takes is to take a picture of ourselves, our family and friends or anybody for that matter - lifting their cap or raising their cap off their head. There are a number of examples at the link above - and here's an example for this post:
Then we need to Tweet or Facebook or use whatever social media outlet that we're used to and make those pictures go viral. We need to get them in the hands of our Senators and Representatives and let them know that they can't trick us into believing that the only way to fix SS is on the backs of the middle class, poor or the elderly.
This is a simple concept to get the word out to "Lift The Cap" or "Raise The Cap". Maybe someone can get this post to Sherrod Brown or Tom Harkin.
Again - no need for an expensive ad agency or PR firm to do this. We The People can do this.
What do you think? Please get the word out. Take a pic of yourself lifting your cap and post it.
Think about it - 1000's of pictures of American People sending a message to Congress to "Lift or Raise The Cap".
P.S.
For those of you that are tired of me posting this message - I'm going to keep doing it till it catches on - unless someone has a better idea.
k&r
It is long overdue for Democrats to FIX the fact that the current CPI already has been rigged (since the Boskin Commission in the 90's) to UNDERSTATE inflation. The so-called "chained CPI" simply make the fraudulent theft of earned benefits even worse.
Although this WP article does not give details, Harkin has proposed fixing this with CPI-E --- a CPI calculation that is based on the rise in prices experienced by the elderly ---- for some time, and it would appear that this current proposal probably includes that. (It seems strange that WP gives so little details of the current Harkin-Brown proposal.)
If we don't actively push to correct the current CPI that UNDER-states, rather than over-states, inflation, and go on the offensive with proposals to keep our social contract with our citizens who have paid into the SS Trust fund for a lifetime (only to see its loans to the Treasury used to lower the tax rates for the 1% to historically low, unsustainable levels, followed by demands from the 1% to slash SS benefits so that the Trust Fund bonds remain on permanent loan to the Treasury, allowing the free ride given to the 1% to continue). . . . if we only play (half-hearted) defense, and not go on the offense as Harkin, Brown (and others including Sanders & Warren) are willing to do, the only question would not be if, but when, the Koch Brothers financed reactionaries succeed in conning Congress into defaulting on the benefits earned by working Americans.
This is what makes it sad for me.
