Join Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Peter DeFazio in support of expanding Social Security!

Expand Social Security!

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Join Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Peter DeFazio in support of expanding Social Security!

Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Rep. Peter DeFazio just proposed increasing Social Security benefits by $200 per month―while extending the Social Security trust fund for another 75 years by making the wealthy pay their fair share. This comes as Republicans are under fire for plans from Senators Rick Scott and Lindsey Graham that would cut Social Security or eliminate it entirely.

During the recent Senate hearing on Social Security expansion, Graham said that privatizing Social Security “might be part of the mix.”

Meanwhile, Senator Rick Scott―who won his Senate seat after committing what was at the time the largest Medicare fraud in history―is doubling down on his plan that even Mitch McConnell admits would end Social Security and Medicare in just 5 years.

The new plan to expand Social Security will:

Extend the solvency of Social Security for 75 years by requiring the wealthiest American households to pay their fair share of taxes. Today, because of the earnings cap on Social Security taxes, a CEO making $20 million a year pays the same amount of money into Social Security as someone who makes $147,000 a year. This plan would lift this cap and subject all income above $250,000 to the Social Security payroll tax. Under this plan, over 93 percent of households would not see their taxes go up by one penny.
Expand Social Security benefits across-the-board for current and new beneficiaries. Social Security benefits for current and existing recipients would be increased by $200 a month.
Increase Cost-Of-Living-Adjustments (COLAs). This plan would more accurately measure the spending patterns for seniors by adopting the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E). Older Americans, by and large, are not going out on spending sprees buying big screen TVs, laptops, or the latest high-tech gadgets. Rather, they spend a disproportionate amount of their income on health care and prescription drugs and that would be reflected in the formula for calculating COLAs under this plan.
Require millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share into Social Security. Currently, workers have 12.4 percent taken out of each paycheck and contributed to the Trust Fund, half paid by the employer and half by the worker. This plan would require the wealthy to 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.
Improve the Special Minimum Benefit for Social Security recipients. Help low-income workers stay out of poverty by updating the Special Minimum Benefit to make it increase and indexing the benefit level so that it is equal to 125 percent of the poverty line or about $17,000 for a single worker who had worked their full career.
Restore student benefits up to age 22 for children of disabled or deceased workers, if the child is a full-time student in a college or vocational school. This plan restores student benefits to help educate children of deceased or disabled parents that were eliminated in 1983.
Combine the Disability Insurance Trust Fund with the Old Age and Survivors Trust Fund, making Social Security’s funding more reliable for senior citizens and people with disabilities.