|
John,
Republicans are bringing out the same tired talking points on Social Security as the House moves closer to passing the 2100 Act. They try to foment generational warfare, as though millennials aren't going to need Social Security more than any generation before us.
Send a message to Rep. Kevin Brady and his Republican friends: We won't be divided.
My boss, Alex Lawson, makes a compelling case for why expanding Social Security is GOOD for small business owners and millennials below. Check it out, and chip in to fight back against their generational warfare scam!
Thanks,
Linda Benesch
Social Security Works
-- ALEX'S EMAIL --
John--
Expanding Social Security is critical for millennials and small business owners—and especially for millennial small business owners.
We don’t talk about this often, but even as a small but mighty non-profit, Social Security Works is regulated as a small business. That means our employees get health care through DC’s health care exchange. Several of those employees, including me, are millennials.
As a small business owner and someone with years of expertise on Social Security, I get a little steamed when Republicans use small businesses and millennials to beat up on expanding Social Security.
We’re fighting back against the Republican smear campaign. Can you chip in to fight back?
The Social Security 2100 Act expands Social Security and ensures that all benefits can be paid in full and on time into the 22nd century. But Republicans, led by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), are attacking the bill in predictable fashion: Manipulating numbers in an attempt to foment generational warfare and undermine all of our economic security, falsely claiming that this wise legislation will hurt millennials and small business owners.
The Social Security 2100 Act increases Social Security benefits for everyone, fixes the formula for yearly cost-of-living-adjustments so that it reflects the real expenses beneficiaries face, and raises Social Security’s minimum benefit to 125 percent of the poverty level. It also ensures that Social Security remains strong for current and future generations, into the 22nd century.
As an employer, I am worried about increasing costs—especially health care, which gets more expensive every year. But I am not at all worried about the modest, predictable and gradual payroll contribution increase called for in the Social Security 2100 Act.
I am much more worried about the costs we will face if the looming retirement income crisis isn’t addressed.
Even decades ago, when large corporations offered traditional pensions, small businesses did not have the resources to do the same. Now even the largest corporations have substituted 401(k) plans, which have proven totally inadequate for all but the wealthiest owners and employees. Consequently, Social Security retirement benefits will be even more important to millennials and all the generations that follow.
Chip in to fight back against these right-wing talking points. Millennials need to see who’s on their side.
The Social Security 2100 Act funds itself in two ways: Firstly, it gradually phases out the cap on payroll contributions, so that the millionaires and billionaires pay into Social Security at the same rate as the rest of us. Secondly, the Social Security contribution rate for all workers and employers is very gradually increased from 6.2% to 7.4%. This increase is phased in over the course of 24 years and amounts to an annual increase of just 50 cents a week for a worker earning $50,000. For a worker making the current Federal minimum wage, it’s considerably less—14.5 cents a week.
The Social Security 2100 Act is a great deal for millennials. Stephen C. Goss, Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration, broke down the numbers at a recent Ways and Means Committee Hearing on the bill.1 If the Social Security 2100 Act were enacted this year, someone turning 29 today would pay about $15,000 more towards Social Security over the course of their career (as would their employer). In return, if they retire at age 66, they’ll get over $80,000 more in retirement benefits than they would if this law was not enacted.
We’re building a movement to expand our Social Security system. Chip in to keep our movement strong!
Of course, Social Security includes other critical protections for workers in addition to retirement benefits. If that 29-year-old became disabled or died leaving dependents, their Social Security disability benefits or their family’s Social Security survivors’ benefits would also be considerably higher than they would be without the Social Security 2100 Act.
Millennials should also bear in mind that the Social Security Administration projects that average wages will be more than 25 percent higher in 2035 than they are today. The modest payroll contribution increases in the Social Security 2100 Act will be negligible relative to wage gains, so long as we enact policies that ensure those wage gains are evenly distributed.
The Social Security 2100 Act is well designed for small business owners. As we mentioned, the payroll contribution increase is phased in extremely gradually over nearly a quarter century, giving businesses more than enough time to plan. We’re more than happy to contribute a little more to ensure our workers have adequate retirement, life, and disability insurance.
Chip in to fight for small businesses by expanding Social Security!
Republicans don’t actually care about helping millennials or small businesses with retirement security—or anything else. In fact, the only Social Security bill the Republicans have put forward recently would drastically cut everyone’s benefits. The younger you are, the bigger the cuts would be.2
Their supposed concern for young people and small business owners is a smoke screen to disguise their actual objective which hasn’t changed in 84 years, since the enactment of Social Security. That is to reach their hands into our pockets and steal our earned benefits, to dismantle the Social Security system and sell it off piece by piece.
A recent Wall Street Journal op-ed,3 in which two Republicans (one of whom Donald Trump recently tried to nominate to the Federal Reserve Board) attempt to resurrect the zombie idea of privatizing Social Security, is extremely telling.
Republicans want to destroy Social Security so they can turn your money over to their billionaire friends on Wall Street. It’s no surprise then that the Social Security 2100 Act, which protects and expands Social Security while requiring the wealthy to pay the same rate as the rest of us, is anathema to them. They’re just lying about the real reason why.
We’re fighting back. Stand with us today!
Thanks,
Alex Lawson
Social Security Works
1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnL8SFdbLuo
2 https://www.forbes.com/sites/nancyaltman/2019/03/14/on-social-security-democrats-have-the-courage-of-their-convictions-republicans-not-so-much/#edc288975b02
3 https://www.wsj.com/articles/counter-inequality-with-private-social-security-accounts-11564094326
|
