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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDem Senator Introduces Bill To Lift Social Security’s Tax Cap, Extend Its Solvency For Decades
Thoughts?
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/11/16/1208701/democratic-senator-introduces-bill-to-lift-social-securitys-tax-cap-extend-its-solvency-for-decades/
Democratic Senator Introduces Bill To Lift Social Securitys Tax Cap, Extend Its Solvency For Decades
By Jeff Spross on Nov 16, 2012 at 5:15 pm
Democratic Senator Mark Begich of AlaskaSocial Security, the government entitlement that provides support to seniors in retirement, the disabled, and other Americans, has long been in the cross-hairs of budget reformers. The programs trust fund currently wont be spent out until 2033, and after that it would still pay 75 percent of scheduled benefits.
Most of the proposed solutions to the shortfall involve cutting back benefits and raising the minimum retirement age. Both are deeply problematic; at its current level of benefits Social Security kept over 20 million people out of poverty in 2011, many Americans in demanding manual labor jobs already take early retirement and thus reduced benefits as it is, and lower-income Americans have not particularly benefited from the average rise in lifespans .
This week, however, Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) put forward a reform package that goes in the opposite direction, while still financially securing the programs trust fund for roughly the next seven decades. The Washington Posts Dylan Matthews laid out the details:
It also increases benefits across-the-board. While Bowles-Simpson and Domenici-Rivlin adopt a stingier chained CPI measure for inflation, Begich adopts CPI-E, or a measure that specifically captures inflation in goods that seniors buy.
Due to deteriorated health and other considerations, goods seniors buy tend to be more expensive than those younger people purchase. Begichs CPI-E change would mean, effectively, a 4.5 percent benefit increase for the programs beneficiaries, including not just seniors but their designated survivors and disabled Americans as well.
The Congressional Research Service ran the numbers back in 2010 and concluded that eliminating the payroll tax cap while also paying out the new benefits to wealthier Americans in accordance with their new taxes would eliminate 95 percent of the trust funds shortfall over the next 75 years.
Begich may not hit that goal exactly, depending on how the legislation is written. In particular, his change to CPI-E also lifts the overall benefit level, on top of the changes in CRS scenario. But his reform would probably come very close.
still_one
(92,372 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)redwitch
(14,946 posts)haikugal
(6,476 posts)rocktivity
(44,577 posts)Cue the Vonage theme!
rocktivity
Lugnut
(9,791 posts)Especially this sentence.
"It also increases benefits across-the-board. While Bowles-Simpson and Domenici-Rivlin adopt a stingier chained CPI measure for inflation, Begich adopts CPI-E, or a measure that specifically captures inflation in goods that seniors buy."
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)So much of the time he acts like Lisa Murkowski's lapdog. It's nice to see him propose something on his own that makes so much sense.
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)doesn't he realize that Democrats can only bipartisan when cutting Social Security benefits, not raising them?
hootinholler
(26,449 posts)Maybe this will get it off the table.
MH1
(17,600 posts)that I hold little hope of it being passed, sigh.
forestpath
(3,102 posts)all those fake-smile evasive answers I see from so many congresspeople on MSNBC (other than Bernie Sanders, that is - him I completely trust on SS).
kentuck
(111,110 posts)This is something they would sponsor...
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Democrats allowing republicans to take a good Democratic idea and twisting into a foul parody that the Democrats can then point to and say, "see, it was a bad idea all along".
Cleita
(75,480 posts)This Congress will not pass it. Maybe the next one will.
Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)patrice
(47,992 posts)Politicub
(12,165 posts)Seems like an open and shut case to me.
1ProudAtheist
(346 posts)on dividend income and capital gains. Those who have that type of income get to use it to qualify for benefits, yet do not pay any SS or Medicare taxes on it. That alone should secure SS for the next several hundred years.
CrispyQ
(36,502 posts)Tax investment income like labor.
JeffHead
(1,186 posts)Because it makes too much fucking sense!
Zorra
(27,670 posts)with the "Grand Bargain" "Grand Illusion" once and for all.
mick063
(2,424 posts)There is no kingdom to rule without serfs.
Pass the damn thing now!!!!!!
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)Brainstormy
(2,381 posts)This is the answer. Has been all along.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)K&R
....has anyone noticed? I'm usually a pessimist, but something is different up there since the election. And I like it. It just seems like something is thawing, unassociated with climate change. I think Sen Begich's bill might pass!
jwirr
(39,215 posts)it.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)Apparently Melissa Harris Perry is floating a trial balloon, likely from the WH, that we should instead make people work until age 67. I sure am glad the Dems are on my side.