Financial fears of retirement and Social Security solvency are worries of many Americans. And people have a right to be concerned.
www.theatlantic.com/...
if nothing’s done between now and 2050 to strengthen the retirement system, 25 million elderly Americans will be poor.
Beto O'Rourke has a comprehensive plan to Preserve and Strengthen Social Security betoorourke.com/…
There are 4 main planks:
The caregiving credit is crucially important for those workers who have had to temporarily leave the workforce to care for a loved one. The current system that counts and individual’s 35 highest earning years punishes these workers.
Under Beto's plan:
Americans engaged in caring for a child under 12 or a family member of any age who needs help performing daily activities would receive a credit equal to 50 percent of the average earnings of a full-time, year-round worker under his plan. Americans could collect Caregiving Credits for five years, and these credits would help reduce gender and racial gaps in Social Security benefits. Family caregivers of veterans who receive a stipend through the Family Caregiver Program would also be eligible for credits.
The second plank is vitally important for Social Security's solvency. Beto's plan addresses this:
Beto will champion the Social Security 2100 Act, a bill Beto co-sponsored in Congress, which would expand Social Security benefits while keeping Social Security solvent beyond 2092. The Act immediately helps seniors with an across-the-board increase in Social Security benefits, lower taxes on benefits, and a higher minimum benefit to protect low-income seniors. It also improves the cost-of-living adjustment to better reflect the costs that retirees face.
At the same time, Beto will safeguard Social Security for future generations. Right now, the program is financed by taxes on the first $133,000 of workers’ earnings every year. That means millionaires and billionaires are paying less in Social Security taxes as a percentage of their income than truck drivers and nurses. Beto’s plan will help address this disparity by applying the Social Security tax to wages above $400,000 (affecting the top 0.4 percent of wage earners)
Beto will reinstate a Social Security benefit that had allowed full-time students who were 22 years old or younger to collect a deceased parent’s Social Security benefits. Currently, they cannot collect benefits beyond high school.
Survivor benefits currently reflect family units of a bygone age.
As president, Beto will reform survivor benefits to protect same-sex couples and families with multiple breadwinners, because families shouldn’t be punished if they don’t look the way Donald Trump wants them to.
Beto will work to modernize the Social Security survivor benefit system by permitting a surviving spouse to receive 75 percent of the couple’s combined retirement benefit so long as it does not exceed the benefits of an average earner. Beto’s plan would pay for the modernization of survivor benefits and establishment of a caregiver credit by closing a tax loophole that allows wealthy business owners to avoid payroll taxes.
Fortunately the items in Beto's plan can help solve the looming Social Security crisis. Now it is up to us to beat Donald Trump and other Republicans, so progressive ideas such as these can become reality.
Please check out Beto’s vision and plans at BetoORourke.com and donate to his campaign, which is powered by people, not PACs or special interests or corporations.
Volunteer for Beto: act.BetoORourke.com/signup/volunteer