American voters love Social Security. What’s more, they believe it needs to be not just saved, but expanded. A group of House progressives want Democrats to capitalize on that issue and do it now, before the midterm elections. It’s not a bad strategy, by any means, not while Republican are making no bones about the fact that if they regain power, they’ll go after the program again.
Leaders in the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC)—Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Katie Porter (D-CA)—sent a letter to colleagues urging them to get behind a push for votes for their expansion legislation. “Bringing Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust to the floor for a vote provides us with an opportunity to deliver a long-awaited promise to the American people and demonstrate to the American people that electing House Democrats will ensure that Social Security is strengthened and expanded,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter obtained by Politico.
They cited a fresh survey from Data for Progress demonstrating just how strong those sentiments are. In their survey conducted June 17-21, 83% of likely voters said they support expanding Social Security benefits to ensure they keep up with rising costs. That’s 86% of Democrats, 84% of Republicans, and 79% of independents.
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Efforts by Republicans to shrink or privatize the program are exceedingly unpopular: 68% of voters are opposed, including 75% of Democrats, 70% of Republicans, and 59% of independents.
The legislation the CPC is pushing is from Rep. John Larson (D-CT). It would protect low-income workers and bolster benefits against inflation, among additional measures. It raises payroll taxes on high-income earners to extend the program’s solvency into the next century, and strengthen the Social Security Trust Fund.
Right now, payroll taxes are only collected on the first $142,800 of an individual’s earnings. Anything above that isn’t subject to payroll taxes. This bill would leave that cap in place for people earning up to $400,000, when it would kick in again for those earnings. That would affect only the top 0.4% of wager earners, according to the lawmakers.
That formulation fulfills President Joe Biden’s promise that he would not create new taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year. That’s a really popular idea in the Data for Progress survey. It garners support from 76% of likely voters—including 83% of Democrats, 73% of Republicans, and 73% of independents.
The bill would of course get filibustered in the Senate, but that makes it an even better idea for the House to take up. They should bring a Social Security fight to Republicans when the polling is this clear. Because Republicans are threatening the program at every turn.
The Republican Study Committee in the House just called for raising the retirement age again, three months per year from now until 2040. By then, people who were born after 1978 wouldn’t be able to receive their full Social Security benefits until age 70. That’s a big benefit cut.
On the Senate side, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has promised that “entitlement reform” (their euphemism for Social Security and Medicare cuts) would be a top priority for Republicans if they retake the Senate. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is once again pushing his plan to force workers to steal from their future Social Security benefits in order to get the parental leave they’ll need now that so many states are going to force them to bear children.
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida has his plan, developed for the National Republican Senate Committee he heads up—the committee that is charged with electing Republicans to the chamber—that would simply do away with the programs, along with pretty much everything else. Scott’s big idea is that everything ever passed by the Congress expires after five years and has to be passed again. A Republican Senate is most definitely not going to recreate Social Security.
So the House CPC is on to something in pushing this legislation, which might make for a good September project for congressional Democrats. Fighting for Social Security is always good politics, as much as it is good policy.
Jason Bresler, who was political director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2018 wave that saw the party retake the House joins the The Downballot podcast