Expand Social Security to Honor US Workers

On Labor Day, we celebrate the contributions of workers. The best way to honor those contributions is to increase their economic security. A key component of economic security is retirement security, which we can substantially improve by protecting and expanding Social Security for current and future generations of American workers.

Social Security and Medicare are deferred compensation. Just as we earn our current cash compensation, we earn our Social Security and Medicare with every paycheck. Sadly, too often these earnings are inadequate.

Today’s workers are facing a retirement income crisis, where too many will never be able to retire without drastic reductions in their standards of living. As traditional pensions continue to disappear, replaced (if they are) by riskier, less reliable, inadequate 401(k)s, Social Security is more vital to American workers’ economic security than ever.

While President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress want to protect and expand Social Security, Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates want to slash Social Security benefits—or worse.

Social Security has many strengths. It is extremely efficient, secure, nearly universal, excellent for both long-term and mobile workers, and fair. Its one shortcoming is that its benefits are too low. By expanding those modest Social Security benefits, we are renewing our promise to workers and promoting the security of all American workers for generations to come.

In recognition of Social Security’s increasing importance for workers and their families, several bills have been introduced during this Congress to expand Social Security’s modest benefits.

Representative John Larson’s (D-Conn.) Social Security 2100 Act, which has over 175 cosponsors, would increase benefits across-the-board for all current and future Social Security beneficiaries. It would improve the annual Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs) to better match the true costs that seniors face. The bill would improve benefits for widows and widowers, students, children living with grandparents, public servants, the most elderly Americans, lower-income seniors, those with disabilities, students, and more. And it pays for all of this by making the wealthy finally pay their fair share.

Similarly, Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have introduced the Social Security Expansion Act. Their proposal would increase Social Security benefits across-the-board by $200 a month and update the way that COLAs are determined to better reflect the costs seniors and other beneficiaries face. Further, it would update and increase the minimum Social Security benefit and restore student benefits. Again, it would pay for all of these increases and restore Social Security to long-range actuarial balance by requiring millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share.

Additional bills that would make positive changes to Social Security have been introduced as well. All of these bills not only address our nation’s looming retirement income crisis, but other challenges as well, including rising income and wealth inequality. In fact, rising inequality has cost Social Security billions of dollars each year. Those are billions of dollars that should go to expanding Social Security.

While President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress want to protect and expand Social Security, Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates want to slash Social Security benefits—or worse.

As president, Trump released budget proposals that would cut Social Security and Medicare every year he was in office. He even attempted to defund Social Security by threatening to eliminate the system’s primary dedicated revenue source, payroll contributions. And, after leaving office, he stated that Social Security cuts are on the agenda if he is elected to a second term.

The other Republican presidential candidates are even more open about their designs on our earned Social Security. Former Vice President Mike Pence wants to raise the retirement age for younger Americans and privatize Social Security. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie also wants to raise the retirement age for Social Security, and he wants to subject our earned Social Security benefits to a means test, transforming them from deferred compensation to welfare.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Tim Scott both supported Paul Ryan’s infamous Social Security and Medicare-cutting budget proposals when they were in Congress. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley also wants to raise the retirement age and means test Social Security. Vivek Ramaswamy wants to get rid of civil service protections and fire 75% of federal employees. Imagine trying to get help from the Social Security Administration under a President Ramaswamy, with up to three-quarters of the SSA staff missing and out of action.

This is a moment to build upon the legacy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the other founders of our visionary Social Security system, not a moment to undo the vast, essential gains to workers’ economic security represented by Social Security. The choice in the upcoming presidential election could not be starker.

Every generation has built on the strong foundation laid down 88 years ago, when Roosevelt—and his Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins (the first woman ever to serve in a presidential cabinet)—shepherded Social Security into law. Now it is our turn. Expanding Social Security is the best way to honor our nation’s workers in the Labor Days to follow this one.