House Democrats are not wasting their new majority.
On Wednesday, (FDR's 137th birthday) Democrats announced the Social Security 2100 Act, which prolongs the program's solvency for the next 75 years, as well as expanding the benefits for Americans contributing to it.
Rep. John Larson, who is Chair of the Social Security Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, made the announcement on Facebook this morning.
What's remarkable is that the bill already has 203 co-sponsors. it's shocking that nothing has been done to ensure Social Security's solvency in Congress since 1983.
Republicans in Congress have become the anti-tax, anti-science, pro-privatization free market a-holes who only increase spending and federal deficits to appease their very wealthy corporate donors with moronic tax cuts, it's about time a bill was passed that actually helps Main Street America.
Daniel Marans has a nice write up about the bill:
The legislation raises benefits by creating a minimum payment that’s 25 percent greater than the federal poverty level as well as modestly adjusting the benefit formula so that more of a person’s pre-retirement income will be replaced. Larson estimates that the new benefit formula would increase the average payout by 2 percent. His legislation would not change the age at which a retiree can collect benefits.
The legislation also replaces the consumer price index, used to calculate the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), with an index that better reflects seniors’ expenses, particularly the higher costs of health care. The Social Security Administration’s chief actuary projects that the bill’s Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E) would, on average, increase the COLA by about 0.2 percent.
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Currently, Americans pay Social Security taxes only on the first $132,900 that they earn based on a cap that rises with average wage growth. The new legislation would leave income between $132,900 and $400,000 untaxed. Over time, the present-day cap would rise to $400,000, at which point all earnings would be subject to the tax.
They are very close to already having the 218 votes needed to pass the bill.
Instead of discussing Social Security in terms that are framed by right-wing extremists - like by proposing cuts to your benefits as well as raising the retirement age until you are dead, this plan is sane and comprehensive.
