I had earlier posted Joe Biden’s plan for Social Security disability benefits. Here’s his plan for Social Security retirement benefits:
- Put Social Security on a path to long-run solvency. ... The Biden Plan will put the program on a path to long-term solvency by asking Americans with especially high wages to pay the same taxes on those earnings that middle-class families pay. ...
- Provide a higher benefit for the oldest Americans. At advanced ages, Americans become more vulnerable to exhausting their savings, sometimes falling into poverty and living a life of hardship. The Biden Plan will provide the oldest beneficiaries – those who have been receiving retirement benefits for at least 20 years – with a higher monthly check to help protect retirees from the pain of dwindling retirement savings.
- Implement a true minimum benefit for lifelong workers. ... Under the Biden Plan, workers who spent 30 years working will get a benefit of at least 125% of the poverty level.
- Protect widows and widowers from steep cuts in benefits. ... The Biden Plan will allow surviving spouse to keep a higher share of the benefits. This will make an appreciable difference in the finances of older Americans, especially women (who live longer on average than men), raising the monthly payment by about 20% for affected beneficiaries.
- Eliminate penalties for teachers and other public-sector workers. Current rules penalize teachers and other public sector workers who either switch jobs or who have earned retirement benefits from various sources. The Biden Plan would eliminate these penalties by ensuring that teachers not eligible for Social Security will begin receiving benefits sooner – rather than the current ten-year period for many teachers. The Biden Plan will also get rid of the benefit cuts for workers and surviving beneficiaries who happen to be covered by both Social Security and another pension. These workers deserve the benefits they earned.
- I don’t think that Donald Trump has any coherent plan for Social Security other than to end the F.I.C.A. tax.
17 comments:
Fairly vague on how Biden will pay for it. Maybe I missed it.
But there seems to be 2 major ways to address solvency:
1. FICA tax.
2. The maximum amount of taxable earnings at $137,700.
I am not a tax attorney or accountant so I do not presume to know the entire tax code. But it seems like raising the maximum amount even to $150K or $200K would solve a lot of issues to fund this.
And yes, the 5-month waiting period and 2-year Medicare waiting period for SSD must go. They are a criminal breach of contract and an abomination.
Do not want to hear whining about how funding this waiting period would cripple this system. It is a fundamental part of the insurance program to gain these benefits. It basically cheats the taxpayer. How do you fund it? Figure it out. See above.
Has anyone run the numbers on this plan to see what the costs are and how much it will take to cover the increased benefits?
3:43, shame on you for asking such a question. No one ever worries about the cost of these things. Don't you know the government has an unlimited supply of money? Don't you know all we have to do is make a few rich folks pay their fair share and we'll all have everything our hearts desire and then some? Don't you know all we have to do is tax and regulate businesses out of business and that will make the economy soar? Worked in Venezuela, didn't it?
@ 4:22
Oh that's right. Venezuela and the U.S. are like clones. Certainly the same situation. They both have the same amount of money and taxpayers. It could never work.
The U.S. Federal government (NASA) put humans on the moon. They can certainly run the numbers fairly easily. The question is what liberal goodies do you take away. Have to cut somewhere.
6:40 PM, October 12, 2020
"The question is what liberal goodies do you take away. Have to cut somewhere."
As Joe Biden would say, here's the deal:
When a Democrat is in the White House, Republicans pretend to be concerned with the deficit. When a Republican is in the White House, they forget all about the deficit and pass budget busting Trillion dollar tax cuts for their wealthy donors and supporters. They call it "Starve the Beast."
Of course, Republicans often leave the budget in a mess. The last time we had a balance budget was under President Clinton, a democrat.
If Democrats win the election, they need to have a policy of "REVERSE Starve the Beast" and spend like drunken sailors on needed programs and enhancements to Social Security. Then when the Republicans manage to elect a President again, they can prove to us how concerned they are about the budget deficit by not passing more tax cuts for the rich.
It's only the trump-ets complaining about benefits and it's all socialism. But when disability hits or come retirement they say is that all? I live in a rural area and they complain the most.
So teachers who say only work 5 years under SSA and receive a handsome state pension are going to be paid Social Security too, even though they don't have enough quarters of coverage to be insured? Not sure many think that's a good idea other than teachers as far as fairness goes.
1226 If they are not insured, they are not insured and won't get RIB. If they are insured, they are insured. Why should it be different for teachers or anyone else. Further, anyone who has only worked 5 years (BTW I think it is 10 years for RIB) under OASDI is not going to get much of a benefit, even at 10 years its not going to be much.
The parsimonious and petty thinking of some people on this board never fails to amaze me.
@ 9:00
Believe you share my disdain for most politicians. I agree with most of your points especially about Clinton. He was awarded a great economy. So both sides have long neglected Social Security and dipped into the trust fund.
But I was trying to stay on topic about the solvency of SOCIAL SECURITY. Not the overall fixing of the deficit or national debt.
Like your analogy of "Starve the Beast." I am going to steal that. Not sure I agree they need to "spend like drunken sailors" to fix Social Security.
As I said before, it does not seem numbers wise to come up with a fix to make it solvent. Pretty sure a team of good bean counters could do it in 1 day.
What you seem to be saying is both sides are hypocrites, which I agree. Just did not realize both sides believe Social Security is a "liberal goodie." Thought both sides bipartisan liked the idea of Social Security. It just seems the conservative rights want it privatized to help their rich cronies. But they still believe in the idea.
Some president on either side must fix it prior to 2030.
There are only a few states where teachers don't pay into Social Security. The injustice comes when they did not work long enough to be invested in their state system then not long enough under Social Security to be covered either. Think 9 years and 9 years. I have had a few SSI disabilty cases like that
@1108
" The Biden Plan would eliminate these penalties by ensuring that teachers not eligible for Social Security will begin receiving benefits sooner – rather than the current ten-year period for many teachers."
That sounds like making them insured when they aren't, no?
One of the Democrats, was it Biden? Proposed a doughnut hole for the FICA tax. Cap stays in place and then resumes at a higher earnings point.
1122, 1108 here, I have not read the original and I could not pull it up, but I think that sentence above was inartfully drafted and diverged from the original. I assume it to mean that under the current rules, the equivalent of 10 years of non-teaching earnings are wiped out by government pension offset and that by changing the current rules there would no longer be said offset. I don't think the plan intends to give teachers or any other government employee unearned benefits. But I leave open the possibility that I could be wrong.
I finally figured out why Trump wants to eliminate FICA tax, even after Mitch told him not to. FICA tax is the only tax which Trump has to pay & cannot avoid with phony tax shelters and deductions.
Trump's plan goes far beyond eliminating payroll taxes. He said he will eliminate payroll taxes, if re-elected. SSA Chief Actuary Stephen Goss has calculated that, without alternative funding, if payroll taxes are eliminated as of 1/1/2021, the disability Trust Fund will run out of funds mid-2021 and the retirement/survivors Trust Fund will run out of funds mid-2023. Trump says he'll fund social security from general tax revenues. Congress would have to appropriate money, year by year, to pay social security checks. Retired/disabled folks wouldn't be able to count on a certain amount of social security, so their finances would be thrown into chaos. And social security would have to compete with all other federal funding such as military funds. We know which one would win the funding! Americans who pay into social security deserve a dedicated source of funding. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Social Security's funding problems can be fixed, so long as we keep dedicated payroll taxes.
@1108 Per Biden website:
Current rules penalize teachers and other public sector workers who either switch jobs or who have earned retirement benefits from various sources. The Biden Plan would eliminate these penalties by ensuring that teachers not eligible for Social Security will begin receiving benefits sooner – rather than the current ten-year period for many teachers.
++++
So is he saying that if a teacher who only taught 8 years could receive his or her teacher pension which would be earlier than the perhaps normal 10 years of service?
It's not clear what he is saying to me.
It makes as much sense as increasing social security benefits when there needs to be more income to pay the benefits.
1108 here. What I think he is saying is that the RIB benefit even after working for 10 years is so small that the offset provisions negate any putative RIB benefit and it is only after that "breaking even" point that teachers or any other government employee such as our beloved first responders would see any payable benefit. Remember that all of these people pay into the system when they work nongovernmental jobs but almost never see a benefit under the current rules. That's my interpretation but I agree it is less than clear.
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