What have we learned in the last two years from the Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment? “Made in America” is a slogan of the Left and the Right

Social Security on Thursday announced an 8.7 percent cost of living adjustment, the largest inflation adjustment to benefits in four decades — a welcome development for millions of older Americans struggling to keep up with fast-rising living costs.

The COLA will give a boost to about 70 million Americans next year, one of the most valuable features of Social Security. Most people think about retirement when they think of Social Security, but the program provides much more than that.

In August, the program paid benefits to over 50,000,000 people over age 65, but younger beneficiaries like survivors of insured workers and Supplemental Security Income added over 18,000,000 people to the total, according to the Social Security Administration data.

We have made a lot of progress over the past two years. My administration, working with Democrats in Congress, is building an economy that grows from the bottom up and middle out.

The unemployment rate is 3.5% – a 50-year low. Over a million jobs have been created by us, including almost 700,000 manufacturing jobs. On my watch, it is a reality that the slogan “Made in America” is just a slogan.

We have more work to do. Inflation, caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, is a global challenge. I know a lot of people who have jobs are struggling to find enough money to live. That is why I want to lower costs for families.

We need to make it easier, not tougher, for hard-working Americans to get by. There was a need to ease the burden of student debt for families rebuilding after the swine flu. Republicans criticized the move, but I will never apologize for helping working- and middle-class Americans as they recover from the pandemic. Especially not to the same Republicans officials who voted for a $2 trillion tax giveaway that mainly benefitted wealthy Americans and the biggest corporations.

Because of the actions we’ve taken, gas prices are decreasing. They’re down $1.20 since their peak this summer and just this week they fell another 10 cents. That’s adding up to real savings for families.

The Republicans in Congress are doubling down on trickle down economics that benefit the wealthy and corporations. They have laid out their plan clearly. It would raise your costs and make inflation worse.

There are provisions in the prescription drug legislation that take effect in January, but many Republicans in Congress want to roll them back. The cap on prescription drugs for senior citizens would be removed. The $35-a-month cap on insulin for seniors would be gone. Millions of Americans wouldn’t be able to save on health care premiums because of it. Republicans would raise those daily costs.

Do the Biggest Corporations Pay Their Fair Part in Taxes? Why Do We Stand Up for Our Country? The Case of Social Security and Medicare

Democrats are making sure the biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share in taxes. 55 of the wealthiest corporations in America paid zero federal income taxes in 2020. No longer. I signed into law a 15% corporate minimum tax. And, I’m keeping my campaign commitment: no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay a single penny more in federal taxes.

President Joe Biden has been making a strong case for Social Security and Medicare in recent days. The president has specifically seized on a proposal from GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida to sunset federal legislation – including Social Security and Medicare – every five years and require Congress to pass them again.

The fact is, this is not your father’s Republican party: Many Republicans in Congress want to pass a national ban on abortion. If we get more Democrats in the Senate and keep the House, I will codify it in January.

Democracy is being put to the test in America. We are learning not everything about democracy is guaranteed. You have to stand up for it. Protect it. Choose it.

Just as they did in 2020, the American people will vote in record numbers and make it clear that democracy is a value that both define us and unite us as Americans.

We have faced some of the most challenging challenges in our history over the last few years, and we did not relent. I’ve never been more confident about our future. If the American people decide in 14 days, we will move forward or backwards.

Sen. Pat Biden of Florida: Markets, Social Security, and Medicare in the Era of a New Governing Executive Order

A CNN KFile review of comments from his 2012 congressional campaign showed he supported plans to replace Medicare with a system of partial costs paid by the government. In an interview with the local newspaper, he said he supported the need for market forces to restructure Social Security.

Ryan is attempting to do something about reform entitlements. It’s not a voucher, it’s premium support,” he was quoted as saying. “You get a plan and can supplement it with your own income.”

It would be great to have market forces in place, more consumer choice and make it so that the system is not going to be bankrupt when you have it.

At the time, DeSantis was a Tea Party fiscal conservative, running with the backing of conservative groups like Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, FreedomWorks, the Club for Growth, and the Madison Project.

If he were to run for president, the current Florida governor wouldn’t be talking publicly about his position on entitlement programs and instead would focus on cultural war issues.

In the State of the Union address on Tuesday and in speeches on Wednesday and Thursday, the president referred to a part of Scott’s plan that says, “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. Congress can pass the law again if it’s worth keeping. Biden correctly asserted that “all federal legislation” would include Social Security and Medicare, which do not currently require congressional re-approval.

“I think people who are low income will probably be given coverage that is similar to what they have now,” he said in the interview with the St. Augustine Record. I think people like me, who have been more successful, will not have to pay more. I will have premium support that’s going to guarantee me a certain amount of coverage.”

If you want a Cadillac plan or something over and above that, I think it should be driven by the consumer and not imposed on the taxpayers. That makes sense to me.

He wants to restructure the program to make it financially sustainable for people in his generation.

After getting elected, one of DeSantis’ first interviews as a newly sworn-in member was on CNN on January 4, 2013, where he said he hoped Congress would take on restructuring entitlements when asked about Social Security and Medicare.

The Republican senators have responded forcefully, accusing Biden of deceiving the public about where they stand. Here is a fact-check of the exchanges.

Lee had been targeted by the Biden and White House due to a video clip in which he said, “You probably have never heard from a politician.” I want to get rid of Social Security by pulling it up by the roots. A second clip features Lee saying Medicare and Medicaid need to be pulled up, as the clip that went viral this week shows.

Referencing his “spirited debate” with Republicans at the State of the Union, Biden called Scott’s proposal “outrageous” and vowed he would veto such a plan during a speech in Florida last week.

Biden may have created an inaccurate impression, however, by mentioning the sunset proposal during the section of the State of the Union in which he discussed the battle over the debt ceiling. The proposal is not part of the current debt ceiling negotiations, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said that Social Security and Medicare are not on the table.

Scott accused Biden of having cut billions from Medicare in last year’s inflation reduction act and then threw a false claim into the debate this week. The Inflation Reduction Act enabled the government and senior citizens to spend less money on prescription drugs, and it also made Medicare more generous to seniors. The claim of a Medicare cut was repeatedly debunked last year, when Scott and a Republican campaign organization he chaired used it during the midterm elections.

This week and in numerous previous speeches, Biden has castigated Johnson for saying last year that Medicare and Social Security should be treated as discretionary spending, which Congress has to approve every year, rather than as permanent entitlements.

“The Democrats have been accusing me, since the first time I ran for office, of wanting to end Social Security, wanting to cut it, wanting to gut it, wanting to – I’ve never said that. I’ve always been consistent: I want to save it,” he said in a radio interview this week.

It’s impossible to definitively fact-check this particular dispute without Johnson specifying how he wants to “fix” and “save” the program. His office did not reply to the request for comment.

The Future of Social Security and Medicare: Sen. Mike Scott’s “Sunday Night” Sen. Joe Biden, a Democratic Senator from South Dakota

Getting a deal on the debt ceiling will be more difficult if there is only a four-seat majority. McCarthy said cuts to the programs are “off the table.” But Republicans also largely refuse to look at cuts to defense spending. And balancing the budget – and tackling a ballooning federal debt – can’t be done by cutting discretionary spending alone.

Scott was a freshman senator and he said that Biden had a sunset bill in 1975. It requires every program to be looked at every four years.

[Republicans] all raised their hand. Guess what? We accomplished something. Unless they break their word. There are going to be no cuts in Medicare, Social Security.

How Republicans handle themselves in the next year could determine the depth of what kind of foil Biden has in this group during his expected run for president — as the fight for which party is most in touch with the American people plays out.

Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota offered Sunday a stark warning about the future of Social Security and Medicare if Congress fails to take action now.

In 11 years, we have to have a better plan than we do now. Under existing circumstances, we will see some reductions of as much as 22% in some sort of benefit. It is easier to fix it now that it would be around five or six years from now, according to Rounds.

Scott told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins last week that his proposal is intended to eliminate wasteful spending and help ensure the government can “figure out how to start living within our means.”

We think there is a possibility for long-term success but without being frightening and without damaging the system. But it requires management. And it requires actually looking at and making things better,” he said.

The Social Security 2100 Act: Social Security Benefits for the 66th-Century Employees in Connecticut and an Implication for the State of the State

Social Security is on track to replace less pre-retirement incomes for today’s younger workers than they will for today’s retirees. That is attributable, mainly, to the last major changes to the program, which were enacted in 1983. That legislation put in motion a gradual increase in the Full Retirement Age, or F.R.A. — the age when you qualify to receive 100 percent of your benefit. Before 1983, the F.R.A. was 65, but for everyone born in 1960 and later, it is 67. Every year increase in the F.R.A. equates roughly to a 6.5 percent cut in benefits.

Workers have responded by not filing their claim in a timely manner. In 2021, 31 percent of retired worker claims were made by people age 62, down from 60 percent in 1998, according to an analysis of Social Security Administration data by Mr. Johnson. Most of the workers claimed benefits by the age of 66.

Mr. Biden proposed increasing payroll tax contributions for people with incomes over $400,000. That would extend solvency by roughly five years. The Social Security 2100 Act, sponsored by Representative John Larson, Democrat of Connecticut, enjoys widespread support in the Democratic caucus. It mirrors President Biden’s payroll tax proposal.

The annual cost-of-living increase would be adjusted to a more generous formula with a 2 percent boost in Social Security benefits. It also includes targeted benefit increases such as a new minimum benefit level for very low income seniors, and improved benefits for widows and widowers. It also would provide caregiver credits that increase benefits for people who take time out of the work force to care for dependent family members.