Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is proposing a massive expansion of Social Security benefits, including a $200 per month increase in benefits for all.
The Massachusetts senator is looking to poach voters from Joe Biden, who is far ahead with senior citizens in recent polls. It will also help establish her radical credentials with the far left, who currently favor Bernie Sanders and other, more extreme candidates.
But senior voters have proven to be remarkably resistant to such bribery attempts. So Warren tossed in some goodies for younger, poorer voters. Warren must do all she can to close the gap with Biden and, regardless of the cost of her proposal, it will still have wide appeal.
There are several aspects to Warren’s proposal that will go far beyond what the Social Security program was ever meant to do.
In her proposal, Warren pledges to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset, two provisions that limit the amount of benefits for public-sector workers. She also calls for broader coverage for low-income workers by requiring that all those who have put in 30 years of Social Security-covered work will receive an annual benefit of at least 125 percent of the federal poverty line when they retire.
Warren would also broaden what is classified as work under Social Security. She would include people who exit the workforce to care for a family member by crediting their average lifetime earnings with that time. Americans who provide 80 hours a month of unpaid care to a child under 6, a dependent with a disability or an elderly relative would see that reflected in their Social Security earnings.
For widows and widowers, the plan would also eliminate the minimum age requirement so that they “can receive their full survivor benefits at any age without a reduction,” according to the proposal.
But isn’t Social Security running out of cash or something? Fear not, oh unbeliever. Lizzy to the rescue!
First, Warren’s plan would require Americans earning more than $250,000 to contribute 14.8 percent to Social Security, splitting that rate evenly between employees and employers, at 7.4 percent each. Currently, Americans pay 12.4 percent into Social Security — 6.2 percent by the employee and 6.2 percent by the employer.
Second, the plan would create a new Social Security contribution requirement on net investment income for individuals earning $250,000 a year or families making more than $400,000.
Warren also pledged to close loopholes in the Net Investment Income Tax, so that the “contribution requirement will ensure that the very wealthy are paying into Social Security even when they report the bulk of their income as capital returns rather than wages,” her post said.
So, higher taxes. How original. The only problem is, if all of the proposals by all the candidates are going to be paid for by “taxing the rich” so that they pay their “fair share,” isn’t that going to make most of the rich not rich? How much can you steal from the rich before they become just another middle-class taxpayer?
Details, details…Warren and her cohorts don’t really care.
The left hasn’t had an original idea about social benefits since the 1960s, so they keep expanding the ones they already invented. More money, more dependents, more bureaucrats, more control, more, more, more…
Do you really believe that the rise in Social Security taxes to 14.8 percent will only hit the “rich”? If so, you know nothing of being rich or of the logic of government. The rich will do all in their power to reduce the amount of their income eligible to be taxed at the higher rate. That will mean less income than expected for the government (see failed French experiment). Less income from the rich will mean that Warren and her socialist friends will have to look elsewhere for funds.
It won’t be long until their hungry eyes rest on you.
Be afraid.
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