Social Security Report

Rep. Larson: Social Security 2100 Bill Likely to be Reintroduced Mid-Year - Financial-Planning.com

In an interview posted yesterday by Sr. Editor Tobias Salinger on www.financial-planning.com, Rep. John Larson (D-CT) indicated that the Social Security 2100 Act he introduced in January 2019 is likely to be re-introduced mid-year 2021 in the current Congress. During the interview, Rep. Larson covered five key areas of the bill, focusing on the following:

1. While the continuity of Social Security through the years has been instrumental in lifting seniors, disabled, dependent children, and Veterans with disabilities out of poverty, its future is in question because Congress has taken no action to improve the program in nearly four decades.
2. One of the key provisions of the legislation is to improve the mechanism used to determine cost of living adjustments to keep pace with expenses faced by seniors. The Social Security 2100 Act would address the more than 5 million retirees who receive a benefit below federal poverty threshold (fpt), setting a minimum benefit level of 125% of the fpt.
3. On the issue of taxation of benefits, the bill would increase tax thresholds so that an estimated 12 million beneficiaries would be relieved of the income tax burden.
4. The earnings above $400,000 would be subject to FICA tax as a major ingredient in the bill’s “pay for” provision.
5. Rep. Larson stressed that the primary funding mechanism for future retirement benefits needs to be viewed as an insurance premium, rather than simply as a tax.
6. Although the bill has not yet been introduced in the 117th Congress, he anticipates re-introducing it in late spring or early summer. Rep. Larson suggested that there is overwhelming support for the bill’s incremental tax and benefit measures, noting that this may bode well for open discussion and debate on the bill this time around.

The Financial-Planning post, which you can access here, includes a link to the recorded interview. Check it out…it will serve as a good overview of Rep. Larson’s thoughts on the Social Security 2100 Act.

As the move toward Social Security reform progresses, there will likely be many more viewpoints hitting the media channels, so stay tuned to this site for updates. In the meantime, know that the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) has been deeply engaged in the fight to address Social Security’s long-term solvency problem. Indeed, the opening paragraph of AMAC’s Social Security Guarantee, a proposed framework for legislative action, affirms this commitment: “The promise to guarantee Social Security for all Americans must be kept. AMAC has examined the many proposed solutions presented in the Intermediate Assumptions portion of recent Trustees Reports and selected the alternatives we feel are best suited to save Social Security’s retirement trust fund. We have combined these selected assumptions with several other recommendations to achieve what is the best path to long-term trust fund solvency without raising taxes.” Learn more about AMAC’s position on Social Security here…

Notice: The first link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; socialsecurityreport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link’s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or socialsecurityreport.org.