Sanders Offers Solution For Social Security

The Republicans have been doing everything they can to convince Americans that Social Security is in trouble, and unless benefits are cut and the retirement age raised the program will go broke and not be solvent enough to offer benefits to the younger generation when they retire. This is an outrageous lie.

Social Security is one of those rare federal programs that has worked exactly like it was supposed to work. Before the program was enacted about half of all elderly Americans lived in poverty, but now only 10% of the elderly live in poverty. That's still too many, but any reasonable person would have to admit that reducing poverty among the elderly by 80% is a remarkable achievement.

Social Security is not in as much trouble as the Republicans would have us believe. According to the Social Security Administration the program currently has a $2.5 trillion surplus, and can meet all of its payment obligations for at least another 25 years. And it can easily be fixed to fund full payments far into the future without cutting any benefits or raising the retirement age for any generation.

Last Thursday, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) announced he will be introducing a bill offering a simple and fair solution to the future problems of Social Security. The bill will simply remove the cap of Social Security (FICA) taxes for those making more than $250,000. Currently the rich pay a much smaller percentage of their income in these taxes than 90% of Americans do (since they don't have to pay anything on their income above about $106,000).

This would not only fully fund Social Security taxes far into the future, but it would make the FICA tax much more fair for everyone. It is just not right (or fair) for the bottom 90% of Americans to pay about 6% of their income to FICA (although Obama has reduced that to about 4.5% for now) while the richest 10% pay a much tinier percentage (example: a person making $100,000 or less pays 6%, while a person making a million dollars would only pay 0.006%). It certainly would not hurt the rich, who can afford it, to pay a percentage equal to that of other working Americans.

But as imminently sensible as Sanders new bill would be, you can bet that it will be opposed vociferously by the Republicans in Congress. That's because they care more for the rich than they do for elderly Americans. They would rather cut Social Security benefits and throw many more elderly people into poverty than ask the rich to pay the same tax percentage of other American workers. I don't know how they can defend such a ridiculous position, but I guarantee you they will try,

The Republicans have never liked Social Security and they would love to abolish it. During the Bush administration they tried to "privatize" it by turning the worker's tax over to their buddies on Wall Street to play with. That would have been good for the greed-mongers of Wall Street, but a huge gamble for retirees. That didn't work because of the negative feedback from the public (who strongly support Social Security).

Now they are trying to dismantle Social Security in a different way. They want to convince Americans that the budget deficit can't be reduced without cutting Social Security. That is another lie. Social Security, since it has its own funding, hasn't contributed to the deficit or the national debt at all -- not a single penny. And cutting Social Security benefits will NOT bring down the deficit or the national debt at all.

Maybe it's time to remind the congressional Republicans of the words of one of their own right-wing icons -- Ronald Reagan. In 1983 Reagan told Americans:

"It was nearly 50 years ago when, under the leadership of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the American people reached a great turning point, setting up the Social Security system. F.D.R. spoke then of an era of startling industrial changes that tended more and more to make life insecure. It was his belief that the system can furnish only a base upon which each one of our citizens may build his individual security through his own individual efforts. Today we reaffirm Franklin Roosevelt's commitment that Social Security must always provide a secure and stable base so that older Americans may live in dignity." 

It's time to stop telling lies about Social Security and act to save it by passing Sander's proposed bill. It's fair, and it will make the program healthy for many decades to come.