If the Democratic Party is not going to endorse expanding Social Security benefits then who will?
At a recent meeting of the Democratic National Committee a measure that called for a $15 minimum wage was added to the party’s platform, but two initiatives that would expand Social Security benefits were rejected and many democrats were none too happy according to a story in The Washington Post.
It is important to state that just because the Democratic Party puts something in its platform it does not necessarily mean it will come to fruition especially since republicans are likely to fight tooth and nail against a $15 minimum wage or expanding Social Security, but the party’s platform is ideas and principles that they want leaders to pursue. Unfortunately expanding Social Security is not likely to happen anytime soon considering both the disability and retirement funds are facing shortfalls in less than 20 years, but it’s disappointing the party left out expanding Social Security, something that was discussed by both of the two top candidates for the presidential nomination.
The two platform ideas that were rejected were a measure that would eliminate the cap on Social Security taxes and a measure that would establish a new cost-of-living index to benefits.
The first measure would open Social Security taxes to earnings beyond $118,500. Currently any earnings over this amount are not subjected to Social Security taxes. That means that the majority of Americans pay Social Security taxes on 100 percent of their income, but higher earners do not. The expansion of the taxes would increase Social Security’s trust funds. This is a funding mechanism for both the retirement and disability funds that makes a lot of sense, so it is a little bit disappointing that the platform proposal was shot down. The other proposal actually would’ve potentially increased Social Security benefits by offering a new cost-of-living index more beneficial to Social Security recipients than the current cost-of-living adjustment, also known as COLA. Due to the formula currently being used there has been no increase in Social Security benefits in multiple years over the last decade.
The article in The Washington Post indicates that Bernie Sanders’ supporters favored the Social Security amendments, but that Hillary Clinton supporters were the ones responsible for defeating the two amendments. A former democratic congressional candidate from New York voiced displeasure about the decision to defeat the two amendments and said expanding Social Security was something all should be in favor of.
“This is smart politics, and if the republicans are smart, they’ll have it in their platform too, “Eric Kingson said. There is basically zero change the Republican Party will offer to expand Social Security benefits in its party platform.
The good news is that the Democratic Party does have an item that would “expand” Social Security benefits, but there are no details as to how or when.
The reality is that the overwhelming majority of Americans favor no cuts to Social Security benefits and the majority of democrats favor expanding Social Security benefits. If the Republican Party continues a stance that Social Security cuts need to be made it could be a fatal blow to the party. A recent Pew Poll asked supporters for presumptive republican nominee Donald Trump about cutting Social Security benefits and 73 percent of them opposed any cuts. Even 66 percent of former candidate Ted Cruz’s supporters and 62 percent of former candidate John Kasich’s supporters also opposed any cuts to Social Security. The fact remains that despite the costs involved, Social Security remains the government’s most popular program.
