By Laurel Duggan
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders urged President Joe Biden to boost Social Security payouts and expand payroll taxes in order to fund the program for the next 75 years, according to The Washington Post.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Sanders pitched his plan during a private Jan. 25 meeting in the Oval Office, and Biden’s response was was noncommittal, according to the Post. Biden has pledged to block any Republican attempts to cut Social Security, but he’s been less forthcoming about how he plans to fund the program, which is expected to run a $21 trillion shortfall over the next 30 years, according to Manhattan Institute senior fellow Brian Riedl.
Sanders’ plan, which he’s proposed once again in a bill he reintroduced in January, involved levying new payroll taxes on earnings over $160,000 and raising annual Social Security payments by $2,400 per recipient.
The White House has been working behind the scenes to determine whether they should advocate for any specific policies on Social Security and other entitlement programs rather than simply condemning Republicans who have suggested cuts, according to the Post. White House aides have proposed payroll taxes on the wealthy, but Biden hasn’t endorsed that plan, according to anonymous sources cited by the Post.
Taxing the wealthy won’t necessarily solve Biden’s entitlement funding problem, according to Riedl; even if Congress imposed state and payroll tax rates nearing 100% for wealthy taxpayers through upper tax bracket rate hikes, high-worth asset taxes and a raised corporate tax rate, the new tax revenue still couldn’t fund the next three decades of Social Security and Medicare as the programs currently exist, according to Riedl.
“The biggest threats to Social Security and Medicare are House and Senate Republican efforts to gut a program millions of Americans have been paying into since their first jobs as teenagers,” the White House told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The President has already helped pass the two most significant bills to lower health care costs in Medicare in generations, through the Affordable Care Act and Inflation Reduction Act, and has promised more to keep Medicare solvent in his budget, but he won’t budge on paying every penny of the benefits to Americans that have earned them. We look forward to Republicans sharing their plan with the American people as well, since they have promised to pass a budget this year.”
Sanders did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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How about we just confiscate all wealth of career politicians when they croak, and apply it to the SS trust fund.
burnie the socialist commie would spend the country into ruin given the chance. His only concern with money is that he get’s enough. biden would have to involve the under 400K households in the tax to meet burnies goals which would make him more of a liar than the 100% he now is. This administration has already made households cough up 10k more a year to buy the same things 2 years ago, it’s also whacked 1/3 of our ira’s 401’s. When is it enough burnie. Retire you old fart you become less relevant every week.
Raise the limit that people pay FICA taxes to at least $500,000.00
I think the FICA tax should not have wage limit. Tax all income levels 6%. Those making 200K plus can afford paying the extra tax. It figures once I get near retirement SS and Medicare is going to be cut due to the funds not being available. Stop pouring cash to Ukraine. The government seems to have money to give EXCEPT to take care of it’s own citizens.
Lets see Bernie has been in the DC swamp for 25 years. He is 81 years old and most likely started collecting Social Security 16 years ago. But he makes $185,000. per year off of our taxes plus free healthcare, a expense account for all his travel and a lodging allowance. Is he going to pay more, or maybe since he will retire with a hefty Government pension that we are going to pay for. Maybe he should forgo the SS payment. But he most likely needs it to take care of his 3 houses, one being a lake front (Camp?) in VT. Come on Bernie start giving back for the good of the people, that’s the socialist way. But He is one of the HAVES we are the have nots.
Bernie Barks, again. Social Security isn’t what people think it is. It is NOT YOUR FREE & FOREVER GOV’T RETIREMENT PLAN….. Yes, Soc Sec recipients do get a COLA sometimes. But what good is it. Unless you are pretty low income…your monthly check of Social Security will be federally taxed.. The Gov’t taxes 85% of the payment. VERMONT TAXES SOCIAL SECURITY TOO!!! So on one hand the Gov’t “gives”….then, the other hand yhey “take back”. But then….the Gov’t also deducts Medicare out of it too…A better plan is not to raise Soc Sec payments, but rather to make it tax free up to certain income levels. Lower incomes thus KEEP more. VT should exempt too. Does Warren Buffet or Bill Gates really need their Soc Sec payment? How many are out there in USA will huge assets $ and huge retirement incomes already and over 65? They will never miss what they get in Soc Sec…it is chump change to them, a crumb.
Bless your heart Bernie but there seems to be so much that the government has taken over that just isn’t working. Shouldn’t we be looking to privatizes…return the peoples’ affairs to the people?
Here we go again Vermont’s barking buffoon spewing more of his tax and spend
plan if he and his president would stop spending taxpayer money on foolishness
and control there out of control spending we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Socialist Sanders is just another political dinosaur !!
………… he’s just another
Bernie is 81 years old. His retirement plan was set long ago. The rest of us are subject to a ponzi-scheme that most will never see as it is bankrupt – the national debt is a fact and the US dollar is closer to being worthless than anyone knows.
You are so right! They have squandered social security funds for their pet agendas and devalued the American dollar. The war in the Ukraine will be the proverbial nail in the coffin, as war costs are always passed on to citizens by way of inflation.