Sanders, Warren propose bill to extend Social Security's solvency for 75 years, increase benefits ..

[867-5309.]

Source: CNBC

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., introduced a new bill on Thursday that aims to extend Social Security’s solvency for 75 years by raising taxes on the wealthy, while making benefits more generous.

The proposal, called the Social Security Expansion Act, would expand benefits for current and new beneficiaries by $200 per month, or $2,400 per year, and would make the monthly checks more generous in other ways.

To do that, and improve the program’s solvency at the same time, the plan also calls for raising taxes on high-earning households...

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/09/sanders-warren-bill-would-extend-social-securitys-solvency-expand-benefits.html

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Hell yes.

[Phoenix61]

1. That would be a great way to help stabilize the economy.

Every cent of that money would be spent rather than invested.

[lordsummerisle]

2. k&r n/t

[bucolic_frolic]

3. The policy proposal

I think before Joe Biden took office, was to make the minimum SS amount equal to the federal poverty level. I seem to recall Joe saying just that point.

[PoliticAverse]

5. The proposal is still up at the Biden website...

seems to have been forgotten since the election.

III. PRESERVE AND STRENGTHEN SOCIAL SECURITY...

https://joebiden.com/older-americans/

[riversedge]

42. WE only hear of Rick Scotts proposal to renew SS every FIVE YEARS!!

[dflprincess]

4. It would be nice

but they need to something to make Medicare B affordable. How about 100% coverage (not 80%) and do away with the need for supplements that just shovel money to the private insurance companies?

As it is, if Social Security checks go up $200, the Medicare B premium will go up $250.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. For what it's worth,

I have never had my Medicare B go up more than an increase in Social Security. And I've been on it since 2015.

[dflprincess]

15. You are correct, I should have used percentages

The 2022 Social Security COLA was 5.9%; the Medicare B premium increase was about 14.5% (from $148.50 to $170.10).

How much that hurts would depend on how large the SS check is.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

31. Since I started taking Social Security, I have had several years

where the COLA was exactly matched by the Medicare B premium increase. I also had several years where my net gain was zero.

But overall,Social Security had been good to me.

[dflprincess]

33. I plan to start collecting SS next year when I turn 70

I also plan to keep working for at least a couple years as my employer`s health plan costs less and covers more than Medicare. An unusual situation to be in.

As an aside, I did collect Survivor's Benefits after my dad died,. Back then you could collect benefits until age 22 if you were a full time student. I don't know if I would have gotten thru college without them. I've always been grateful for SS.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

35. Good for you.

I likewise did not start collecting SS until I turned 70. So many people start collecting as soon as possible, which is largely a mistake, in my opinion. They simply have no idea how long they will probably live. Everyone I have personally known who collected early wound up regretting it, as their payout was so very low.

[Mickju]

38. I started collecting at 70 and I'm so glad I did.

I have enough to live comfortably since I also have a small pension from a part time job. My sister started collecting at 62 and she really regrets it. She said someone at her local SS office advised her to do it. It was really terrible advice. I moved in with my sister to help her by sharing expenses. I could have lived alone and sometimes I wish I had, but I just couldn't allow her to live in poverty. Now I'm glad I did it because we are getting older and sometimes we need each other's help.

[progree]

39. I'm glad I collected at 66, and not at 70.

I didn't need the money, so I invested it. My spreadsheet analysis is that I will have a higher net worth at death this way than if I had started collecting at 70 (even given that my SS benefit would be 8% higher per year of delay), out to well beyond my expected longevity (there are longevity calculators that even allow one to put in some health information).

My tax / financial adviser also used to urge me taking benefits early, but I ended up waiting until my full retirement age. That's when I took a more detailed look at it.

I would only add that for people who have to carry credit card balances in order to delay taking S.S., then delaying SS just won't work out financially. Or ones who delay repairs, or delay dealing with health or dental work, and so on of the type that get significantly more expensive to deal with the longer one delays, delaying SS is not going to work out either (assuming one uses the early S.S. money to deal with those kinds of issues).

On the other hand, those who spend the early money on non-necessities won't be better off financially by taking money early.

[Bengus81]

44. I started collecting at 62. Yeah less money but I also had a fairly fat IRA and was still working

So I banked 36 checks with zero Medicare premiums taken out before I hit 65. I was self employed so I started slowing it down as to not trigger a SS reduction because of what I was making. I retired in 2017.

My mom worked a great deal of her life and paid into SS,taking off some years when my brother and myself were born and young. She turned 65 in March of 1992 and died in late Oct of 1992. She received 5-6 Social Security checks at the most for decades of work.

[ShazzieB]

48. I started collecting at 62.

I never planned on it, but I was desperate at the time.

I got laid off in the great recession of 2008. I was 58 at the time. I never was able to land another full time job (yay for age discrimination?), just a series of poorly paid temp gigs. By the time my 62nd birthday rolled around, my self-confidence was ground down to nothing, and the idea of a stable, regular income, even a relatively small one, was irrestible. After 3.5 years of groveling to prospective employers to try to convince them to hire me, I was emotionally exhausted. Knowing I could count on having that money materialize in my bank account every month was a huge relief.

SS wasn't and isn't my only income, thank God, because I'm married. If I'd been on my own, I don't know what would have become of me.

It's been 10 years, and I have never regretted starting to collect when I did. I regret that I was in the situation that drove me to do it, but I don't regret the decision itself. It was definitely the lesser of the evils that were available to me.

[Mr.Bill]

6. Now all we need to do to make it happen

is to elect 10 or 15 more Democratic Senators.

[pansypoo53219]

7. lift the cap, reduce the RICA %.

i am going thru my bookcase + started reading a 1987 grieder book about the fed/ect. reading 80's #s is insane. greenspan fucked up the SS reform. the cap should have been INDEXED for1.

[AllaN01Bear]

8. get rid of the privatization as well. faild attempt by ronald raygun to privatize the whole thing.

[lunatica]

26. Dubya toured the country on his social security privatization kick

He fell flat though.

[Bengus81]

45. Remember that well...........

Let's see,WHO would have run it if IDIOT.2 would have been successful?? Enron?

[progree]

9. As for how it will be paid for, according to the article

In 2022, payroll taxes are applied to income up to $147,000. The bill calls for lifting that cap and applying the Social Security payroll tax to all income of more than $250,000.

Social Security payroll taxes are applied at a rate of 6.2% for both the employer and employee, for a total of 12.4%, which is deducted from paychecks.

The bill calls for having the wealthy pay more through a 12.4% tax on investment and business income. It would also apply levies to certain business income that is not currently subject to payroll taxes.

Under the terms of the bill, more than 93% of households would not see their taxes go up.

No more details on the taxes part in the article

[PoliticAverse]

10. It's not like the bill is in danger of passing, anyway. n/t

[towerbum]

22. people forget about us old folk's that kick the bucket every yr !

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. I like the tax on investment income.

I happen to have investment income, and I'd be happy to pay that tax.

[Martin68]

11. The whole "social security and medicare are not viable" scam is bullshit.

Republicans have done everything they can from day 1 to sabotage them both. Now they have to do it under cover because both programs are popular with the base and they don't know it's socialism, but they still do it.

[Wounded Bear]

19. I was hearing that bullshit back in the 70's...

[progree]

24. Well, the SS and Medicare Trustees signed a report saying that it will not be able to

pay full benefits after trust fund depletion....

Social Security Trustees 2022 report -- https://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/

The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund, which pays retirement and survivors benefits, will be able to pay scheduled benefits on a timely basis until 2034, one year later than reported last year. At that time, the fund's reserves will become depleted and continuing tax income will be sufficient to pay 77 percent of scheduled benefits.

• The Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund, which pays disability benefits, is no longer projected to be depleted within the 75-year projection period. By comparison, last year's report projected that it would be able to pay scheduled benefits only until 2057.

• The OASI and DI funds are separate entities under law. The report also presents information that combines the reserves of these two funds in order to illustrate the actuarial status of the Social Security program as a whole. The hypothetical combined OASI and DI funds would be able to pay scheduled benefits on a timely basis until 2035, one year later than reported last year. At that time, the combined funds' reserves will become depleted and continuing tax income will be sufficient to pay 80 percent of scheduled benefits.

the 4 trustees are all high level Biden administratrion appointees. This isn't a report by right wing economists or the right wing media or such

The report is signed by:
Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury, and Managing Trustee of the Trust Funds.
Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Trustee.
Martin J. Walsh, Secretary of Labor, and Trustee.
Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, and Trustee.


Thread on the 2022 SS Trustees report
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142925306

Edited to add: If Congress does not act, benefits will be cut on trust fund depletion so that income (payroll taxes) matches outgo (benefits). That's the law as it currently is. There is no mechanism in current law that raises taxes or in some other way makes up the shortfall in scheduled benefits (e.g. makes up the shortfall from the general fund).

I'm sure Congress will eventually act.

Another Edited to add: To be clear, even if Congress doesn't act, the program doesn't "go away" on trust fund depletion. It simply pays reduced benefits to what can be supported by then current income (payroll taxes).

[Martin68]

55. Progree, we've known for decades that all we had to do was raise the SS tax on

paychecks by a very small amount to make ups the difference. The doomsday scenarios are based on Congress doing nothing, which is a good bet as long as Republicans have a say. The government could also stop "borrowing" from the fund, but that's another story.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/09/sanders-warren-bill-would-extend-social-securitys-solvency-expand-benefits.html

[progree]

57. "The government could also stop 'borrowing' from the fund" -- By LAW every dime is borrowed

by the government. Literally. Every dime of surplus SS revenue has been loaned to the government.

The government in turn creates special issue treasury securities that are deposited in the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. These earn interest -- paid in the form of more special issue treasury securities. In a year when Social Security revenues fall short of benefits then trust fund securities are redeemed to make up the difference. This is already occurring:

"At the end of 2021, Social Security’s trust fund reserves were $2,852 billion, having decreased by $56 billion over the year." - Source: 2022 Trustees report, https://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/

Similarly the Medicare Trust fund.

Anything and everything one might read about "borrowing" or "pilfering" of the programs having caused the lives of the funds to be shortened is bullshit.

Social Security Trustees 2022 report -- https://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/

From the above link:

Federal law requires that the Trustees invest all excess funds in interest-bearing securities backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. The Department of the Treasury currently invests all program revenues in special non-marketable U.S. Government securities, which earn interest equal to rates on marketable securities with durations defined in law. The balances in the trust funds, which represent the accumulated value, including interest, of all prior program annual surpluses and deficits, provide automatic authority to pay benefits.

As mentioned in #24 above, the report is signed by 4 high level Biden administration officials including Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen.

Actuarial Note #142 of January 1999 (how interest rate determined, the trust fund securities etc.) http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/NOTES/note142.html

I dealt with this issue a few days ago at https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142925306#post18 , and nobody has disputed what these high level officials signed for 2 years in a row.

As for raising the SS tax on paychecks by a very small amount to make up the difference:

Early on, yes. But now, the gap is 3.42 percent of taxable payroll. Meaning an increase of 1.71% of payroll for each of employer and employee is needed to extend the life of the program for 75 years of the program without cuts to scheduled benefits. Meaning that the SS payroll tax on employers must rise from 6.2% of payroll to 7.91%, and likewise for the employee -- that's a 27.6% increase in the SS tax for each.

Alternately, raising the wage/salary cap on high earners from the current $147,000 to no cap will go a long way, but not all the way, to dealing with the problem, (The wage/salary cap has long been indexed for inflation, by the way, something that came up in another post as a partial solution to the problem).

Edited to add

Social Security: Raising or Eliminating the Taxable Earnings Base, Congressional Research Service, Updated December 22, 2021,
https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/RL32896.pdf
Social Security taxes are levied on covered earnings up to a maximum level set each year. In 2022, this maximum—formally called the contribution and benefit base, and commonly referred to as the taxable earnings base or the taxable maximum—is $147,000.

... If no credits to benefits are provided for earnings above the current taxable earnings base (i.e., earnings above the current taxable earnings base do not count toward benefits),38 the increased revenue would eliminate 73% of the projected shortfall and the program would have a projected shortfall equal to about 0.96% of taxable payroll. Under this scenario, the payroll tax rate would need to be increased from 12.40% to about 13.36% or other policy changes would have to be made for the system to be solvent for the next 75 years. However, the traditional link between the level of wages that is taxed and the level of wages that counts toward benefits would be broken.

... If all wages counted toward benefits as they are now, the trust fund would be depleted in 2054; 57% of the projected financial shortfall in the Social Security program would be eliminated. To achieve solvency for the full 75-year projection period, the option would require an increase of about 1.54% in total payroll tax rate (from 12.40% to 13.94%) or other policy changes would have to be made to cover the shortfall.

[Martin68]

58. progress, thanks for the well-argued and well-documented explanation. I was in error

when I assumed the government has been "raiding" the SS trust fund. That said, I do not entirely agree with your argument that there is no viable way to restore the fund through reasonable tax raises or even a government bailout along the lines of the GM and other bailouts during the Great Recession.

[progree]

59. And thank you. If I left the impression that I don't see any viable way to restore the fund

then I'm sorry, but I didn't mean to leave that impression at all. I did dispute that it could be solved by raising the SS tax "a very small amount",

but in combination with getting rid of the wage/salary cap, for example, then it would take only an increase of 1.54% of payroll (see last paragraph of #57) to close the rest of the funding gap, from 12.40% to 13.94%. Which would be an increase from 6.20% to 6.97% for the employer, and likewise for the employee.

I'd hope that some more taxation on very high income folks would be done so as to eliminate the need for the payroll tax increase part of it.

[JoeOtterbein]

14. K n R ! Thanks for posting!

Now, congress people, do it!

[DemocraticPatriot]

16. I support the ideas,

and I have been a supporter of Bernie Sanders....

but Republicans want to abolish Social Security, much less support its continuation...


This will go nowhere.... until we "get rid" of the fascist GOP senators...



"By any means necessary"-- if that happened, I would shed no tears

[Yoyoyo77]

18. Do something about it GOTV!!

[Wounded Bear]

20. K & R...nt

[Jerry2144]

21. need to make the benefits fully tax free

Undo Raygun's tax on benefits

[BlueIdaho]

23. Great idea!

That would really help America’s elderly.

[duforsure]

29. 100% agree

And still give a raise by taxing those making over $250K more getting SSI benefit's. Stimulus checks should also be looked at now for people on SS.

[catrose]

34. Yes!

[CentralMass]

25. K&R

[cstanleytech]

27. I would love a revamp on the amount so it automatically adjusts for inflation as well as a means

testing for qualifying for it but done in a way where it does not kick in and begin reducing the amount until a persons yearly income is 2000% over the federal poverty level which is not set by Congress or the President but rather by the GAO every year.

[Mopar151]

28. Damm Liberals

Right on the money, for all the right reasons.

[turbinetree]

30. This.....

[C Moon]

32. The GOP seems to be dodging the Social Security topic in the past few years.

I guess they are going to need all the votes they can get in the mid-terms, so they'll just beat the anti-abortion drum for now.

[wishstar]

40. Would be great to put them on record for voting against Social Security

giving Dems a strong election issue of protecting Social Security

[C Moon]

50. Yes. I kind of think that's what's going on.

[Grasswire2]

36. raise the cap!

Stop capping income requirement artificially for wealthy SS recipients.

[paleotn]

47. Bingo! Reagan backed doing just that in the 80's

Time to do it again.

[Grasswire2]

37. And how about SS Care Credits for those who must leave the work force to care for loved ones?

If you hire someone to take care of your home and family while you go to work, they get SS credits for that work!

If you leave the work force to do it yourself, you get no pay and no work credits toward retirement.

That's discriminatory, and it lands mostly on women.

[CountAllVotes]

52. I cared for my husband for well over five years

And I got nothing for it.

In the end, the VA was willing to send someone to the house and sit here with him for 16 hrs. a week. However, they do nothing, they just sit.

No cooking, no help, no nothing. So what was the point? The person they wanted to send over would receive $15 and hour for just sitting there.

Needless to say, I said NO to that idea!

In the end, they wanted to send him home and I was to care for him. He could not breathe nor eat/swallow. How disgusting! I'm a 65+ year old disabled woman with MS. How could I provide the level of care giving he required? I couldn't and I knew that and I told them that. They said I was "just fine". Uh huh!

Rest in peace dear late husband.

He had no idea it would end like this, leaving his disabled wife poverty stricken.

[Rocknation]

60. That's the game they tried to run on my family

Last edited Sat Jul 16, 2022, 02:06 AM - Edit history (12)

We were supposed to slam the brakes on our respective lives and "take turns" literally babysitting our mother to death at no pay. We came up with the idea of legal action; they managed to come up with the idea of 24-hour paid caregiving in her senior housing until it was time for hospice.

People who are too ill to be on their own belong in hospital or assisted living environments; people who are too terminally ill belong in nursing homes and hospices.


Rocknation

[CountAllVotes]

61. It was so awful

The whole thing was a nightmare.

I'll never get over it.

I did the best I could and in the end hospice transferred him to a facility close to the hospital via ambulance.

He died 6 days later.

I didn't even know why he died until I received the death certificate.

I almost passed out when I read the cause of death.

I was shocked, absolutely shocked! Shame on these disgusting people! They got the $4K for the 6 days. I'm trying to collect his $255 death benefit. I had a telephone appointment and no one bothered to call me. This was just this last week.

[Auggie]

41. I'll be sure to share this with the next MAGAT on SS I meet

[The Wizard]

43. Republicans have a plan to end Social Security.

[myohmy2]

46. about time...

...many live hand-to-mouth with Social Security as their main or only source of income...and I can't remember the last time we 'expanded' benefits...

...if we have enough money for Ukraine and tax breaks for billionaires I'm sure we can come up with a few extra bucks for grandma and grandpa...

...and if we want to win in November we'd better start showing some positive results...

...thanks Bernie and Liz...

[area51]

56. +1 n/t

[Akoto]

49. As someone disabled/on SSI, can't deny $200/mo would be welcome.

[CountAllVotes]

51. I'm on SSDI

I have been for a long time.

My husband just passed away and being I receive more than he did, I get nothing.

That's right, nothing.

We were already very low income.

Now, on my own, I'm in poverty.

So, yes, an extra $200 a month would make a difference alright. It would help just a bit.

Very SAD reality here.

& recommend.

[NH Ethylene]

53. Those who vote no can be attacked on that vote in the Midterms.

That's probably the whole purpose of this otherwise fruitless effort to pass something with our "majority".

[Rocknation]

54. Why stop at 75 years? Establish SS solvency forever by removing the salary cap altogether

Last edited Thu Jun 30, 2022, 12:56 AM - Edit history (10)

(which would allow EVERYONE to pay less than 6.2 percent) and holding the line on the payouts. The maximum could be based on the current U.S. median income, for instance.


Rocknation