It appears that the Democrats have finally caught on once again to the fact that Social Security is a popular program and that it is a good idea to be perceived as its defender and expander. I say once again because there was a time when they ran quite effectively against the threat, real or imagined, that the Republicans would repeal the program. I love John Larson’s proposal:
•Modestly increase benefits for all recipients (by 2 percent).
•Raise the tax threshold for benefits from $25,000 for an individual and $32,000 for couples to $50,000 and $100,000 respectively, effectively cutting taxes for 11 million seniors.
•Improve cost-of-living adjustments and set the new minimum at 25 percent above the poverty line, so that low-income workers do not have to retire into poverty.
He would pay for these improvements and otherwise stabilize the fund by:
•Gradually phasing in a 1.2 percent increase in the contribution rate, which is now 6.2 percent, between 2018 and 2041.
•Asking more of the wealthy. Now payroll taxes aren’t collected on incomes over $118,000. Mr. Larson’s bill applies the payroll tax to incomes over $400,000 as well, the top 0.4 percent of wage earners.
Mr. Larson said in an interview that his bill, which has dozens of co-sponsors, has been reviewed by Social Security’s chief actuary, who said it will keep the fund solvent for 75 years.
The editorial in the Courant from which this is taken is a generally good one, although it endorses the sky is falling rhetoric of the right, the whole point of which is to get us to destroy Social Security now in order to prevent it from failing later. We actually have plenty of time to deal with Social Security’s finances, though it wouldn’t hurt to do something now. But, assuming we do nothing about either climate change or Social Security before 2033 (when it is estimated benefits will have to be cut if Social Security’s finances are not adjusted), our failure on the Social Security front will seem like small beer. Somehow, the same folks who tell us we must deal with Social Security yesterday are perfectly happy with waiting until a far off tomorrow to deal with a threat that grows greater with every day it is ignored.
But, getting back to Social Security, Larson’s proposal makes a lot of sense. It won’t pass in this Congress, but if the Democrats keep hammering away they’ll get something like it through one day.
Post a Comment