Democratic Primaries

blm

(113,047 posts) Thu Sep 12, 2019, 07:01 PM Sep 2019

NYMag: Warren plan to Boost Social Sec is the Way to Beat Trump

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/warrens-plan-to-boost-social-security-is-how-to-beat-trump.html?

If Democratic presidential candidates want to get serious about the existential imperative of defeating Donald Trump’s growing authoritarian menace, they need to stop their exotic appeals to left-wing activists and start formulating positions voters actually like. Elizabeth Warren has an idea like this. It might be the best general-election appeal any of the candidates has devised yet: Raise taxes on the rich to pay for an increase in Social Security benefits.

The average Social Security beneficiary gets a paltry $16,248 a year from the program. Warren proposes to increase that by $200 a month, paying for it with a 14.8 percent tax on net investment income for individuals earning more than $250,000 and families earning more than $400,000. Her pay-for would not only cover the costs of new benefits, but bring in enough extra revenue to extend the Social Security Trust Fund by 19 years.

Raising taxes on the rich? Popular. More than 70 percent of the public, including a majority of Republicans, support that.

Increasing Social Security benefits? Even more popular. A 2014 survey found 86 percent of Americans agree that current Social Security benefits do not provide enough income for retirees, and 72 percent agree we should consider raising future Social Security benefits in order to provide a more secure retirement for working Americans. A poll last year found that two thirds of respondents would be more likely to vote for a candidate who would raise Social Security benefits, with just 18 percent saying they’d be less likely.......

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden