House Republican budget calls for raising the retirement age for Social Security

A new budget by a large and influential group of House Republicans calls for raising the Social Security retirement age for future retirees and restructuring Medicare.

For Social Security, the budget endorses “modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy.” It calls for lowering benefits for the highest-earning beneficiaries. And it emphasizes that those ideas are not designed to take effect immediately: “The RSC Budget does not cut or delay retirement benefits for any senior in or near retirement.”

Biden has blasted Republican proposals for the retirement programs, promising that he will not cut benefits and instead proposing in his recent White House budget to cover the future shortfall by raising taxes on upper earners.

jordanlund,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

“Medicare is projected to become insolvent in 2028, and Social Security will follow in 2033. After that, benefits will be forcibly cut unless more revenues are added.”

As of today, payroll tax contributions only apply to the first $168,600 of income.

www.ssa.gov/news/…/HowAreSocialSecurity.htm

If you remove that cap, or apply it to other forms of income besides payroll, the funding problem pretty much goes away.

karashta,

Except that's a sham way of framing things that most people use.

The US is monetarily sovereign and can always issue enough currency to meet any demands upon it.

Uncle Sam doesn't go around collecting dollars like a beggar to apply to things. It creates money directly through spending, or backstops the creation of demand deposits by private banks via the reserve system. Money has to be created before it can be destroyed through taxation.

The issue isn't, "Where will we get the money?"

The REAL issue is, "Will we have the infrastructure to care for our elderly?"

Warren Mosler goes over this in one of his better short pieces of literature.

https://moslereconomics.com/wp-content/powerpoints/7DIF.pdf

kromem,

And if we take both your comments together, we end up with “should we get rid of the cap so the rich pay a fair share or keep it and collectively pay for things by way of inflation?”

Personally, I’m all for uncapping it.

karashta,

It's not about the rich paying their fair share.

We need to tax them specifically to reduce their insane power in our system.

The federal government doesn't need them to finance a damn thing. It can finance anything it wants to with the stroke of a pen.

We are not reliant on the rich.

BeautifulMind, (edited )
@BeautifulMind@lemmy.world avatar

“should we get rid of the cap so the rich pay a fair share or keep it and collectively pay for things by way of inflation?”

The problem with the latter is honestly that inflation hurts the poor a lot more than it does the wealthy and if anything, gives the wealthy a lot more power. Power is really the issue here- when the rich have the ability to override democracy by spending money, that’s a big damned problem

Zugyuk,

It’s a pity we have three battleships and no moneys. I want no battleship and three moneys

Semi_Hemi_Demigod,
@Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world avatar

I’d accept one battleship and two moneys if I get to ride on the battleship

BeautifulMind,
@BeautifulMind@lemmy.world avatar

The US is monetarily sovereign and can always issue enough currency to meet any demands upon it.

Yes. When congress appropriates funding and it’s signed into law, the effect is that the US Treasury spends that money into existence. The mechanism, of course, is that Treasury directs the fed to issue bonds to create the money, and when you pay taxes that money doesn’t go into an account Congress can spend from, it goes back to the fed to zero out the bonds used to create it.

Of course, if we continue cutting taxes the way we have, that will eventually balloon the amount of currency in circulation and that can be problematic if it’s untethered to reality

Socsa,

5-10% of US GDP is capital gains. Close these loopholes and treat it as normal income and every person in the US could retire wealthy.

sordidone,
@sordidone@c.im avatar

@jordanlund @Socsa You likely would be interested in Michael Hudson's writing on why the US inflates its GDP and why all this stuff is so important to the fed preserving asset inflation to store wealth. Read Killing the Host! https://michael-hudson.com/

Socsa,

I am extremely familiar with Hudson. Ironically, I’ve been pilloried (and banned) on .ml many times for espousing various versions of his revisionist Marxism. I’ve literally had people tell me I’m misinformed and should read more Lenin smh.

sordidone,
@sordidone@c.im avatar

@Socsa Haha, it's funny how hostile people who call themselves leftists online are to talking about geopolitics or finance. That's what you get when you overinvest your skillpoints in memes and not books 😅

MeaanBeaan,

Isn’t life expectancy in the US lowering though?

Crashumbc,

That only matters if your goal isn’t to destroy social security ( and medicare) like the GOP

ButWaitTheresMore,

The ONLY THING Republicans will lead by example with: working until you’re dead.

brygphilomena,

Should we behave like the French when they raised the retirement age and riot?

BeautifulMind,
@BeautifulMind@lemmy.world avatar

Damn you, I’m in

Zaktor, (edited )

Well, this is currently just a dream in the hearts of most Republicans, so there’s still time before it might get implemented. We should probably riot that our existing retirement age is already too high though.

massacre,

There is no way on earth that budget passes while Biden is President. But look for it to come back with vengeance if Biden loses.

Millenials (and maybe some younger GenX) will almost certainly be fucked. They will not touch any precious retirees because they know their voter base: “fuck the planet, fuck the youth, I got mine”

ColeSloth,

That only seemed plausible back when we were starting to live longer and stay healthier.

That train left the US quite a while back.

Zaktor,

The problem with this is that living longer isn’t really the same as “has extra productive years of labor”. Not dying of cancer at age 75 is living longer, but you’re still old. Even desk jockeys are slowing down in their 60s, let alone people performing physical labor. They’ve given their best years to the economy and deserve to have a little time to enjoy their life before they’re too infirm to do anything.

ColeSloth,

Hence the part where I also said and healthier. I’ve seen some 70 year olds with a lot of strength and energy left to burn. I’ve seen others that look like they might need a breather after walking 20 feet.

Zaktor,

There have always been a lucky few who seem vital late into life. It’s irrelevant to when retirement age should be, because that limit is applying to people who haven’t had that good fortune (and/or top notch preventative care throughout their lives). Even if your argument is that there are more of those lucky elderly, that’s far from a universal gain.

We’ve had 40-some years of productivity growth disconnected from wage growth that all of them (and us) have fed into. The wealth exists, it’s just been sucked away by their employers all these years. They deserve to benefit from it and have some time to spend with their grandchildren or finally take the vacation they never had the time for earlier. The economy doesn’t need hale and hearty 75 year old workers waiting to get unsteady enough that their job finally kills them.

homesweethomeMrL,

Oh yeah, well we call for lowering house republiQans.

xhieron,
@xhieron@lemmy.world avatar

The Democrats need to immediately trumpet this thing from the rooftops. The GOP wants to take away Social Security and Medicare. 170 of them put their names on this budget, if NBC is to be believed.

The Republicans want you to never be able to retire, and they want you to never have the healthcare that your parents and grandparents had or that they themselves enjoy. They want you to be poor and stay poor, and they want the same for your children.

Socsa,

Not just make noise, but propose an alternative of raising the income limit on social security, and mandate contributions for capital gains.

agent_flounder,
@agent_flounder@lemmy.world avatar

I guess if they won’t shout then we have to. Surely we know some older people who need to know this…

GluWu,

They want you dead if you’re not profitable.

Transporter_Room_3,
@Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website avatar

Honestly this might be the only thing that gets my parents to vote in their best interest. Because theyre slightly over one presidency away from retiring.

june,

It won’t impact anyone who retires in the next 15-20 years. I guarantee it. They’re targeting Gen X and millennials with this one.

partial_accumen,

GenX will largely be retiring in the next 15-20 years. So if your estimate is true, its squarely targeting Millennials. Goddamn, how much more can Millennials take? They were in college at the peak of tuition costs, with high student loan interest rates, graduated right into the time of the Great Recession, having their career progress stunted by the pandemic, haven’t been able to save for retirement on their own, and now Republicans want to raise the bar again so they can’t retire on Social Security until later, and even when they do they’ll get lower payouts?

I can’t even imagine what Millennials are feeling now.

RBWells,

Gen X will be retiring never. I’m older genX and nope. It’s true we are close to the age our parents did (well, not my parents actually, dad died in his 50s and Mom worked till mid 70s) but no, the “wealth transfer” will skip us, we will just work, barring disability, straight through. I take my PTO, work out, and try to move through life at a sustainable pace in general.

june,

Yea I suppose it’ll be the younger gen xers impacted. But yea, it’ll be us millennials that get fucked the hardest by these boomers.

Mostly im feeling hopeless, but that’s in no small part because I’ve been unemployed for 3 months and have only landed one interview in that time.

Restaldt,

deleted_by_author

    •
    bss03,

    I usually only have to deal with this feeling a few days at a time. I hope it gets better for you.

    ghostdoggtv,

    🌎🌞🔥👹😎

    originalucifer,
    @originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com avatar

    they wont. the conservative democrats dont care about optics.

    Signtist,

    Republican voters will accept it wholeheartedly simply because a Republican suggested it. Then they’ll view themselves as heroes who made a huge sacrifice for the good of the country when really none of this needed to happen and the country’s just getting worse. Of course, when they actually get to retirement age they’ll be confused and angry as to why THEY can’t retire yet; after all, they’re heroes!

    DefiantBidet,

    They want to strip social security to pay for more tax cuts for the top 1%

    You have to work more so rich people pay less taxes than you.

    ninjan,

    Gotta love republicans “the spend and print regime” was bi-partisan and, importantly, initiated under Trump. Further they’ve continuously held control of the Senate while Biden has been in power and the house since 2022.

    Finally the Affordable Care Act was a republican bill that Obama compromised on instead of the Democratic proposal, to get some improvements through. It’s always amusing when Republicans now shit all over it…

    TransplantedSconie,

    “modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy.”

    Not only will you live longer ,which is false. We saw the greatest decrease in life expectancy due to COVID and opioid overdose we will exploit that too in the name of Almighty Mammon and seek to make sure you never enjoy it.

    SamsonSeinfelder,

    I am sure MAGA hats will cheer for this. Because it is their party proposing this and has to be good. Every rednack will love to work longer.

    PoopSpiderman,

    Republicans are scum.

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