Why does Social Security still come up, even though Republicans say they won’t cut it?

The Cost of Living Adjustment for 2023 and the Progress Towards Its Implications for Families and the Economy: The Case for Social Security and Medicare

The cost-of-living adjustment for 2023, which will be applied to benefits in January, is based on the latest government inflation figures. The final COLA, as the adjustment is known, was released after the Labor Department announced the Consumer Price Index for September, which came in at 8.2 percent. Medicare enrollees can anticipate some additional good news: The standard Part B premium, which is typically deducted from Social Security benefits, will decline next year.

About 70 million Americans will get a boost to their Social Security benefits next year, because of the cost of living adjustment. When people think about Social Security, they often think of retirement, but it’s not the only program that provides economic security.

In August, the program paid benefits to 52.5 million people over age 65, but younger beneficiaries — survivors of insured workers and recipients of disability benefits‌ and Supplemental Security Income, the program for very low income people — added 17.9 million people to the total, according to Social Security Administration data.

We’ve made great progress over the last two years. My administration, working with Democrats in Congress, is building an economy that grows from the bottom up and middle out.

The unemployment rate has not been this low in 50 years. We’ve created more than 10 million jobs. It is a reality that the slogan “Made in America” is not just a slogan.

We have more work to do. Inflation – driven by the pandemic and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine – is a global challenge. I know a lot of people have a job and are still struggling to pay for groceries, gas and rent. That is the reason I am determined to lower costs for families.

I’m working to reduce the burden on working- and middle-class people by bringing down the costs of everyday things they need for their families, such as health care premiums, prescription drugs and energy bills. We passed the Inflation Reduction Act without a single Republican vote to lock in lower health care premiums for 13 million Americans and lower prescription drug prices for seniors.

And partly because of the actions we’ve taken – including a historic release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve – gas prices are decreasing. They’re down $1.20 since their peak this summer and just this week they fell another 10 cents. That is adding up to real savings for families.

The Republicans in Congress are trying to double down on trickle down economics that benefit the wealthy. They’ve laid their plan out very clearly. It would raise your costs and make inflation worse.

My administration finally gave Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices. We capped out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year for seniors and capped seniors’ monthly insulin payments at $35 a month. Big Pharma and scores of lobbyists spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to prevent health care savings for Americans. They failed.

When Corporate Income Taxes Go Unretarded: The American Dream Ill be Realized by the Next-Generation Congress

Democrats are making sure the biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share in taxes. In 2020, 55 of the wealthiest corporations in America paid zero dollars in federal income tax. No longer. I signed into law a 15% corporate minimum tax. And, I’m keeping my campaign commitment: no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay a single penny more in federal taxes.

The president angered many by calling out Senator Rick Scott of Florida, who had made a proposal that called for the end of all federal legislation in five years and would force Congress to issue a report detailing their plans when Social Security and Medicare go bankrupt. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin also has suggested that Congress review spending on the two programs regularly.

The fact is, this is not your father’s Republican party: Many Republicans in Congress want to pass a national ban on abortion. I would veto it right away, and if we elect more Senate Democrats and keep the House, I’ll move to codify Roe v. Wade in January.

Democracy is being put to the test in America. We are learning what every generation has to learn: nothing about democracy is guaranteed. You have to defend it. Protect it. It’s your choice.

I am certain that in 2020, the American people will vote in record numbers and make clear that democracy is a value that both defines us and brings us together as Americans.

Over the last few years, we’ve faced some of the most difficult challenges in our history, but we did not relent. I have never been more sure about our future. The American people will decide within 14 days if we should move forward or back.

Preventing Social Security Abundance Debacle: A View from a 2016 Florida Senator’s Visit to the St. Augustine Record

A CNN KFile review of comments from the 2012 congressional campaign shows he supports plans to replace Medicare with a system in which the government pays for partial costs of private plans. In an interview with a newspaper, he said he supported the need for market forces to restructure Social Security.

“I support what Ryan is trying to do in terms of reforming entitlements. It’s not a voucher, it’s premium support,” he was quoted as saying. It is possible to supplement your own income with a plan.

“I would embrace proposals like [Rep.] Paul Ryan offered, and other people have offered, that are going to provide some market forces in there, more consumer choice, and make it so that it’s not just basically a system that’s just going to be bankrupt when you have new people coming into it,” DeSantis told the St. Augustine Record in a video that was posted on YouTube at the time.

The Club for Growth, the Eagle Forum, and the Madison Project endorsed DeSantis at that time as he was a Tea Party fiscal conservative.

DeSantis has yet to announce he if he running for president in 2024, nor has he spoken publicly about his position on the entitlement programs as the governor or Florida, preferring to focus on culture war issues.

On Thursday, the president visited Florida to emphasize his support for protecting Medicare and Social Security in the state whose population utilizes these programs more than any other. A senior White House advisor told CNN that the visit to Florida by Biden will allow him to fight against the plan that would require Congress to pass the same bill every five years.

“I think people who are low income will probably be given coverage that is similar to what they have now,” he said in the interview with the St. Augustine Record. “I think people like me, who’ve been more successful, it’s not even that I will have to pay more. Premium support will be able to guarantee a certain amount of coverage for me.

If you want a Cadillac plan or something, I think it would be a good idea to drive it by the consumer. “And I just think that that makes sense.”

He thinks we should restructure the Social Security program so it is financially sustainable in a way that will benefit people in his generation.

After getting elected, one of DeSantis’ first interviews as a newly sworn-in member was on CNN on January 4, 2013, where he said he hoped Congress would take on restructuring entitlements when asked about Social Security and Medicare.

The Republican senators have accused Biden of deceiving them. Here is a fact-check of the exchanges.

“When I pointed out that some Republicans are talking about eliminating Medicare, they said, ‘No, no, no,’ ” Biden said in an interview on PBS NewsHour the day after the State of the Union address. I said, OK. Does that mean all of you want to support Medicare? Everyone raises their hand. They all held their hands up. Guess what? We accomplished something. Unless they do something to break their word. There are going to be no cuts in Medicare, Social Security.”

Referencing his “spirited debate” with Republicans at the State of the Union, Biden called Scott’s proposal “outrageous” and vowed he would veto such a plan during a speech in Florida last week.

Biden may have created an inaccurate impression, however, by mentioning the sunset proposal during the section of the State of the Union in which he discussed the battle over the debt ceiling. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said there are no cuts to Social Security and Medicare in the negotiations of the debt ceiling, so there is no indication of this proposal being pushed by House Republicans.

“The president ran on protecting Medicare and Social Security from cuts, and he reiterated that in the State of the Union,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre said this week. He has been very clear about it in the past two years. A bill from the 1970s is not on the president’s agenda.

Biden has accurately cited Johnson’s remarks this week. Johnson said in August on a Green Bay radio show that they had to turn everything into discretionary spending so that they could fix problems or fix programs that were broken. Because, again, as long as things are on automatic pilot, we just continue to pile up debt.” When Johnson faced criticism for those remarks at the time, he stood by them and said that was his consistent longtime position.

“The Democrats have been accusing me, since the first time I ran for office, of wanting to end Social Security, wanting to cut it, wanting to gut it, wanting to – I’ve never said that. I’ve always been consistent: I want to save it,” he said in a radio interview this week.

It’s impossible to definitively fact-check this particular dispute without Johnson specifying how he wants to “fix” and “save” the program. His office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The Future of Social Security and Medicare Unless Congress Becomes More Responsible During his Preterm Republican Running Term, Sen. Mike Rounds

The nation’s debt ceiling needs to be raised by June or the county will default on its debt. The rise of the Tea Party has led Republicans to push for spending cuts. That is a looming fight, as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has shown little ability to corral some of the more vocal, right-wing members of his conference.

“In 1975, he has a bill, a sunset bill,” Scott said on CNN of Biden when he was a freshman senator. “It says, it requires every program to be looked at freshly every four years, not just cost but worthiness.”

Republicans raised their hand. So guess what? We accomplished something. Unless they break their word. There are going to be no cuts in Medicare, Social Security.

How Republicans handle themselves in the next year could determine the depth of what kind of foil Biden has in this group during his expected run for president — as the fight for which party is most in touch with the American people plays out.

Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota offered Sunday a stark warning about the future of Social Security and Medicare if Congress fails to take action now.

“In the next 11 years, we have to have a better plan in place than what we do today. Under the existing circumstances, we may see reductions of 25% or more in a benefit. So, let’s start talking now because it’s easier to fix it now that it would be five years or six years from now,” Rounds told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

Scott told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins last week that his proposal is intended to eliminate wasteful spending and help ensure the government can “figure out how to start living within our means.”

“We think that there are possibilities out there of long-term success without scaring people and without tearing apart the system and without reducing benefits. But it requires management. It requires actually looking at and making things better.

The Social Security 2200 Act: State-of-the-Art and Implications for the Social Security Benefits of Workers and a Democratic Caucus

The social security program is going to replace less preretirement income for younger people than for older people in the foreseeable future. That is attributable, mainly, to the last major changes to the program, which were enacted in 1983. That legislation put in motion a gradual increase in the Full Retirement Age, or F.R.A. — the age when you qualify to receive 100 percent of your benefit. The F.R.A. used to be 65, but for people born in 1960 and later, it is 67. It takes the F.R.A. an average of about a 6.5 percent cut in benefits every year to make it worth it.

Workers have responded, to some extent, by delaying their benefit claim. Mr. Johnson’s analysis shows that the percentage of claims made by people age 62 fell from 60 percent in 1998 to 31 percent in 2011. But 84 percent of workers had claimed benefits by age 66.

As a candidate for president, Mr. Biden proposed adding a new tier of payroll tax contributions for people with incomes over $400,000. solvency can be extended by roughly five years. The Social Security 2200 Act is supported by a large portion of the Democratic caucus. It mirrors President Biden’s payroll tax proposal.

Social Security 2100 includes a 2 percent across-the-board boost in benefits, and it would shift the annual cost-of-living increase to a more generous formula. It includes benefit increases for low income seniors and improved benefits for widows and widowers. It also would provide caregiver credits that increase benefits for people who take time out of the work force to care for dependent family members.