Sanders, Dems urge Obama to expand Social Security

[Stellar]

Sanders, Dems urge Obama to expand Social Security

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By Mike Lillis - 07/12/15 04:20 PM EDT
Scores of Democrats are calling on President Obama to champion an expansion of Social Security benefits for millions of seniors nationwide.

In a letter to be delivered to the White House Monday, the lawmakers say evolving trends surrounding employer retirement packages have put a financial squeeze on the nation's retirees. They want the president to fill the gap by expanding Social Security.
"As employers continue moving from a defined benefit model to a defined contribution model of retirement savings, it is critical that we fight to protect and expand Social Security –– the only guaranteed source of income in retirement," the lawmakers write.

Their campaign coincides with Monday's White House Conference on Aging, a once-in-a-decade event where administration officials will discuss specific policy prescriptions for the nation's seniors.

The Democrats want a Social Security expansion to be "the number one retirement security recommendation" put forth by the White House...

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/247648-sanders-dems-urge-obama-to-expand-social-security

[still_one]

1. all good, but doesn't the President need congress to do that?

[riversedge]

2. From what I can

tell by reading it and the letter--seems they want this be be his number one priority in the upcoming Conference on aging.

[still_one]

6. My point is, shouldn't they also push their Congressional representative also?

[freshwest]

20. Red state voters should be burning up the switchboards to their Reps who are set on ruining SS.

They said they wanted to start cutting up to 40% in January of next year. Then put it back to right after the election. If anyone cares about SS, they had better vote. Or many will die. It's that simple. The GOP are the party of death. People who count on this had better not expect someone else to carry their burden to stop this. Not all will be hurt. Just about 100M, and those who make a living from and with them.

[kenfrequed]

18. We can have many priorities

In that conference it should be very, very high.

[99Forever]

3. Senator Sanders.

Once again, showing what leadership is by doing it.

[BrotherIvan]

4. Very good

[Cali_Democrat]

5. The only way to do this would be to get a new Congress

Republicans control both the House and the Senate.

In fact, Obama is so hated by Republicans and their voters that if he constantly talks about it, even more GOPers in Congress will be opposed to expanding social security.

[Stellar]

7. So, his best bet is to stay silent on it...

in hopes that someone picks up the ball and run with it. At least it would seem not to have been Obama's idea. I guess.

[bucolic_frolic]

8. After 2006 GOP Congress and GW Bush

There is no longer a minimum Social Security Benefit

It is now based on lifetime income formulas

So if it's $85 a month, that's what you get

This change hurt the poorest Americans and it was hustled through
Congress with little debate

[MannyGoldstein]

9. The irony here is rich

A few years ago, Obama was fighting like hell for SS cuts, e.g.,

http://www.opednews.com/populum/pagem.php?f=Rep-Conyers-Obama-Demand-by-Jeanine-Molloff-110729-352.html

[lewebley3]

10. Of course Obama wants to expand ss: So do all Dem's: We don't have the votes

It would be better is Obama just got the cap raised, or made
ss something people who make more that 200,000 had to
play something into it.

[frylock]

11. Obama didn't have the votes for TPP either..

but we all saw how motivated he can get to pressure Congress into voting for something he really, REALLY wants.

[lewebley3]

12. So, you think wishful thinking can get the votes needed.

Sorry, real Dem's that want to get things done live in the real world

[frylock]

13. Was it wishful thinking that got TPP passed?

Or was it a President using arm twisting and his bully pulpit to get something through that he strongly supported? Is that what happened in The Real World™?

[lewebley3]

14. No, there were people who had interest in the TPPi: Those people worked hard to get passed

No, wishful thinking very hard work

[frylock]

16. So your Real World™ assessment is that people don't want to expand SS?

[Arkana]

15. Wow, talk about your false equivalencies.

Why, it's almost like there was Republican support for the TPP...and there isn't any for an SS expansion!

[frylock]

17. So TPP would've passed with only Republican support?

[Indydem]

19. Do you even understand why there is a cap?

Benefits are a factor of contributions.

If you raise the cap on contributions, you have to raise the cap on benefits.

If you do not, you take a cherished program that Americans love and respect, and turn it into redistribution, AKA welfare.

Raising the cap without raising benefits will kill the program.

Raising the cap and raising benefits only shores up the program for now, and creates a ton of problems when those who have contributed at $200k show up to collect their benefits.

A lot of people a hell of a lot smarter than You or I are running SS and they say a cap increase is not in the program's best interest.

[customerserviceguy]

21. Thank you

It seems that a lot of people here think Social Security is funded by a forest of money trees.

It's all good and well to talk about expanding benefits when politically, you know it isn't going to happen.

I have doubts about receiving Social Security, and I'll be sixty later on this year. When the disability fund starts getting its funding from the old-age fund, that two trillion dollar on-paper surplus is going to shrink mightily. One more recession, and the whole thing goes under.

[Indydem]

22. Too many unicorns around here.

People seem to think they can just raise that cap to "x" and it just means more money coming in.

They don't seem to understand what SS is, how it works, or how it has stayed respected for 85 years.

[lewebley3]

23. Yes, I understand SS, and how it, works, If we made it law that all had to pay !

Then SS could be expanded to give Seniors and sick people
quality life.

Raising the cap worked just fine for Regan and Tip:

They are not lot of people smarter then me running SS, is not complicated:
that's is GOP talk, so the GOP don't have to pay their fair share to
the Seniors: The GOP have been trying to kill SS since FDR signed it
into law.

The Cap would be in the SS very best interest! GOP don't love and respect SS,but
everyone else does.

[taught_me_patience]

24. And how do we pay for this?

As it is right now, the trust fund is set to run out by 2033, only 18 years from now. SS costs are expected to remain at 6% of GDP until 2050... 27 years after the trust fund is expired! After 2033, there is going to be a HUGE hole to fill:

From the social security trust fund website:


Under current projections, the annual cost of Social Security benefits expressed as a share of workers’ taxable earnings will grow rapidly from 11.3 percent in 2007, the last pre-recession year, to roughly 17.1 percent in 2037, and will then decline slightly before slowly increasing after 2050. Costs display a slightly different pattern when expressed as a share of GDP. Program costs equaled 4.1 percent of GDP in 2007, and the Trustees project these costs will increase to 6.2 percent of GDP for 2037, then decline to about 6.0 percent of GDP by 2050, and thereafter rise slowly reaching 6.1 percent by 2088.

Chart D shows that the difference between cost and revenue (expressed as a percentage of GDP) from dedicated payroll taxes, income taxation of benefits, and premiums will grow rapidly through the 2030s as the babyboom generation reaches retirement age, under the assumption that scheduled benefits will be paid even in the absence of an increase in dedicated tax revenues. 4 This imbalance would result in vastly increasing pressure on the unified Federal budget, with such financing requirements equaling 4.4 percent of GDP by 2040.

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/

The shortfall alone in 2040 is going to be approx. 20% of the entire federal budget! We need to get real abou