Is Biden’s Social Security Reform Plan Fatally Flawed? Pundits say “yes” - Motley Fool
Social Security, America’s premier anti-poverty program, helps about 90% of beneficiaries pay their monthly living expenses. So is it any wonder that news of the program’s potential insolvency in about 10 years grabs nearly everyone’s attention? Obviously not, to include President Biden who has previously floated a plan to “reform” Social Security. Only trouble is, according to those who have done painstaking analysis, is that the President’s plan does little to restore the Social Security program to solvency. Biden’s plan includes raising SS payroll taxes on the rich, changing how the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) is calculated (to provide higher COLA), increasing the minimum SS benefit for low earners, and increasing benefits for those over age 78. All of which may sound good on the surface, but which, according to experts, will only extend Social Security’s solvency by a mere five years. In any case, according to this Motley Fool article by Sean Williams, the President’s plan is fatally flawed and has little chance of ever becoming law. Click here to read the Motley Fool’s take on President Biden’s Social Security reform plan.
Social Security reform is a trending topic and discussion will become even more intense in the forthcoming 2024 election year. As an example of leading thoughts on reforming Social Security, the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC, Inc.) believes Social Security must be preserved and modernized. This can be achieved without tax increases by slight modifications to cost of living adjustments and payments to high income beneficiaries plus gradually increasing the full (but not early) retirement age. AMAC Action, AMAC’s advocacy arm, supports raising the thresholds at which benefits are taxed and then indexing for inflation, and calls for eliminating the reduction in people’s benefits for those choosing to work before full retirement age. AMAC is resolute in its mission that Social Security be preserved for current and successive generations and has gotten the attention of lawmakers in D.C., meeting with many congressional offices and staff over the past decade.