General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSocial Security Expansion Act Fact Sheet
https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Social-Security-Expansion-Act-one-pager-Final.pdfSocial Security is one of the most popular and successful government programs in the history of our country. For more than 80 years, through good times and bad, Social Security has paid out every benefit owed to every eligible American on time and without delay. In 2021, Social Security lifted 26.3 million Americans out of poverty, including more than 18 million seniors. Before it was created in 1935, about half of our nations seniors were living in poverty. Today, the senior poverty rate is 10.3 percent. Yet, despite this success, tens of millions of seniors and 25 percent of people with disabilities are still struggling to get by, and many older workers fear that they will never be able to retire with security and dignity.
The most recent evidence indicates that nearly 40 percent of seniors rely on Social Security for a majority of their income and one in every seven seniors rely on it for more than 90 percent of their income. And to make matters worse, nearly half of Americans age 55 and older have no retirement savings. Meanwhile, the average Social Security benefit is only $1,688 a month. Social Security is not going broke. Social Security has a $2.85 trillion surplus in its trust fund and can pay every promised benefit to every eligible American until the year 2035. After that, the Social Security Administration estimates that there will be enough funding available to pay 80 percent of promised benefits. Given this reality, our job is not to cut Social Security, as many of our Republican colleagues in Congress want to do. Our job is to expand Social Security and extend its solvency so that everyone in America can retire with the respect that they have earned and deserve after a lifetime of hard work. Thats what the Social Security Expansion Act is all about.
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JoeOtterbein
(7,702 posts)brooklynite
(94,727 posts)The last Congress would have been a better choice.
Celerity
(43,499 posts)brooklynite
(94,727 posts)Other than Bernie (who's appeal is thin outside of safe Blue districts) I'm not aware that Biden, Schumer or Jeffries are going to push this.
Celerity
(43,499 posts)yaesu
(8,020 posts)This bill passing but it is a great idea which means the fascists would never vote for it.
WarGamer
(12,483 posts)Although I'd add... raise the minimum benefit amount.
Right now some people receive just $700/mo even though they worked the required number of quarters.
Celerity
(43,499 posts)and
WarGamer
(12,483 posts)But I'm afraid that a lot of politicians are afraid to upset high income earners...
Otherwise, why wouldn't this already be law?
Celerity
(43,499 posts)Caucus kneecapping our Party from within (or partially within, in Curtsy's case now) when we try and get things like this done.
It is also, of course, a given that the Rethug vermin will always block these things.
2naSalit
(86,776 posts)A reality.
tinrobot
(10,916 posts)Will 401k, IRA, or Roth withdrawals be subject to the tax?
What about investments normal people have saved for retirement, such as index funds, bonds, etc?
By trying to tax the billionaire investor class, they could also hurt a lot of regular people.
Celerity
(43,499 posts)penny.
and
Currently, workers have 12.4 percent taken out of each paycheck and contributed to the
Social Security trust fund, half paid by the employer and half by the worker. This bill
would require the wealthy pay the same 12.4 percent on their investment and business
income, by increasing the net investment income tax by 12.4 percent and applying it to
certain business income not already covered by payroll taxes.
BWdem4life
(1,694 posts)Seeing as how life expectancy has been going down for several years now...
Celerity
(43,499 posts)benefits for some.
A bipartisan group of Senators is talking about raising the retirement age on Social Security
https://www.semafor.com/article/02/27/2023/a-bipartisan-group-of-senators-are-talking-about-raising-the-retirement-age-on-social-security
A bipartisan group led by Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Bill Cassidy, R-La. is considering gradually raising the retirement age to about 70 as part of their legislation to overhaul Social Security, Semafor has learned from two people briefed on their efforts. Other options on the table include changing the existing formula that calculates monthly benefits from one based on a workers average earnings over 35 years to a different formula thats based instead on the number of years spent working and paying into Social Security.
The plan also includes a proposed sovereign wealth fund (as previously reported by Semafor) that could be seeded with $1.5 trillion or more in borrowed money to jumpstart stock investments, the people said. If it fails to generate an 8% return, both the maximum taxable income and the payroll tax rate would be increased to ensure Social Security stays on track to be solvent another 75 years.
This is an example of two leaders trying to find a solution to a clear and foreseeable danger, Cassidy and King spokespeople told Semafor in a statement. Although the final framework is still taking shape, there are no cuts for Americans currently receiving Social Security benefits in our plan. Indeed, many will receive additional benefits.
In a brief interview Monday evening on Capitol Hill, Cassidy said hed been meeting with stakeholders for the past two years on the proposal, but that its details were still in flux. You could really take a fund and, with certain assumptions, take all your revenue from there, he told Semafor. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., a member of the group, previously said that raising the payroll tax cap was under discussion. Only the first $160,000 of employees' earnings are currently subject to payroll taxes, which help fund Social Security. If Congress fails to step in, retirement benefits will be cut roughly 20% for seniors starting in 2032, per the Congressional Budget Office.
BWdem4life
(1,694 posts)Gotta keep the thing afloat somehow.
The Mouth
(3,164 posts)are the same assholes who won't hire someone over the age of 50.
republianmushroom
(13,677 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,706 posts)though I'm better off than the "average" retiree.
We need to raise the minimum wage as well. That will boost revenues from the bottom levels of employees.
snot
(10,538 posts)because even if they can't be passed this year, they help nudge the Overton Window in the right direction. The Republicans have used this tactic for years, succeeding in dragging us backward in ways I'd never have thought possible 10 years ago.
A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias.
Oscar Wilde (1997). Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis, p.1051, Wordsworth Editions
Also, in my experience, you're unlikely to get any of what you want if you don't ask for all of it.