WASHINGTON, DC – As reports continue to cover the shrinking viability of Social Security and working Americans continue to worry about their ability to rely on the government-run retirement program, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), discussed his bipartisan “Big Idea” to save Social Security in remarks to The Ripon Society on Thursday morning.
“Social Security accounts for 20 percent of our nation’s future indebtedness,” the Louisiana legislator stated. “Ten thousand Boomers a day become eligible for Social Security or Medicare. Everybody says, ‘Oh my gosh, our debt and deficit are going up.’ As we all know, the amount of discretionary spending has remained constant as a percent of our budget. It is the entitlements that are exploding.”
“At the mid part of last Congress, we had seven Democratic Senators, and we had seven Republican Senators who were willing to go out on a podium and say, ‘We endorse this idea.’ We briefed the White House on four separate occasions. That was the good news. The bad news is that Biden wasn’t interested. But nonetheless, we’re setting it back up so that next Congress, we hope we can achieve it.”
“Social Security is going to be insolvent in seven or eight years. At that point, according to law, the amount of money going out has to decrease to the amount going in.”
In the face of benefit cuts and the possibility of the program making up 20 percent of the nation’s debt if the U.S. were to borrow funds to keep the program afloat, Cassidy knew there had to be another, more fiscally sound, route to save Social Security.
“We have to think creatively,” he continued. “There’s always a solution. Everybody says, ‘Social security is easy to fix. You just eat your spinach.’ Well, when I look around the United States, I don’t see a whole lot of appetite for spinach. I just don’t. People want something different. So, we’ve tried to come up with a different idea and we call it our ‘Big Idea.’”
The HELP Ranking Member continued:
“What we would do is set up an investment fund separate from Social Security. We put $1.5 trillion in it over five years, and it is invested in our nation’s economy, just like the Canadians do. … It’s what the Norwegians do, it’s what the Japanese do. It’s what everybody does.”
Cassidy, who has long taken a bipartisan approach crafting a fiscally-sound plan to save Social Security, then described the projected financial success of the “Big Idea.”
“Any proceeds over the next 60 to 75 years would flow back into it. It would be held in escrow. We would repeal the law saying that you must cut benefits, but we would use this escrow to offset the borrowing required to pay those promised benefits. That takes care of at least 70 percent of the long-term unfunded accrued liability. Along the way, we can actually increase benefits.”
The Ranking Member then discussed key components of the “Big Idea” that appealed to both sides of the aisle, including the repeal of the Retirement Earnings Test.
“We figured out something that both Democrats would really like, and Republicans would like too, and we address those issues at the same time … We repeal that. It is a work incentive. Republicans love it. Democrats like it too.”
In his closing remarks, the senior Senator from the Pelican State remarked on the time-sensitivity of the matter, and his hopes to address it regardless of who sits in the White House next Congress.
“If we do this – if we address 20 percent of our nation’s future indebtedness, and this one program addresses that – we improve benefits. There’s no spinach here. This is not quite dessert, but it certainly is as close to a free lunch as you can possibly get in public policy. We’re teeing it up. We’re under incredible pressure financially and we are anticipating that we’ll have strong support again.”
To view Cassidy’s remarks to The Ripon Society Thursday morning, please click the link below:
