Senators Toomey, Casey could play key role in addressing Social Security problems – By Wes Venteicher (triblive.com) / June 8 2018
Americans received another stark reminder this week that the nation’s Social Security program is in financial trouble, and Pennsylvania’s two U.S. senators could play a key role in addressing the problem.
The Social Security board of trustees reported Tuesday that the program’s $2.89 trillion trust fund would be depleted by 2034 if no changes are made to the program by then. That would trigger a 21 percent reduction in benefits, the board said. Money would still come from Social Security taxes. The tax rate for both employers and employees is 6.2 percent.
Lawmakers have been aware of the trust fund’s potential insolvency for years, but have delayed dedicating more money to the program or reducing benefits.
U.S. Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, and Bob Casey, D-Scranton, are two of the six members on the Senate subcommittee on Social Security, pensions and family policy. The subcommittee includes four Republicans and two Democrats.
In response to this week’s report, Toomey’s office called for reforms while Casey vowed to fight any that include privatization of Social Security, a program signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935.
Toomey has called for reforming Social Security , along with Medicare and Medicaid, to curb the nation’s growing debt. Social Security alone accounts for about a quarter of the federal budget.
Toomey’s office said in a statement that the entitlement programs have been troubled since before Republicans led an effort to overhaul the nation’s tax code. The Congressional Budget Office projected in April that the tax law would add about $1.3 trillion to the deficit by 2028.
“The trustees reports once again confirm what we already knew: Our major entitlement programs are growing faster than revenues and the economy as a whole,” Toomey spokesman Steve Kelly said in a statement. “This was true before tax reform and remains true today. Senator Toomey has long supported reforms that will make these programs sustainable for future generations and will continue to do so.”
Toomey has supported letting young people make tax-exempt contributions to a retirement account as a voluntary alternative to putting their money into the existing program. He also has voted to reduce taxes people pay on their Social Security benefits.
“I have proposed a series of modest reforms, including slowing the rate at which some benefits grow and asking wealthy Americans to accept less-generous health care benefits in their retirements,” he wrote in a 2012 column in the Pottstown Mercury.
Casey has opposed measures to allow alternative private retirement accounts. Other detractors fear such measures could open the door to privatizing Social Security altogether.
“It’s vital that we preserve these important programs to ensure that our seniors and people with disabilities have the support they need,” Casey said in a statement following the release of this week’s report.
“The 2.5 million Pennsylvanians that rely on Medicare, the millions who receive retirement benefits, and the hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians with disabilities that rely on Social Security assistance deserve piece of mind that they will be able to continue living their daily lives as they do now,” Casey said. “As we work to find solutions to the programs’ funding issues, I will fight against ‘reforms’ that impose unnecessary cuts and to defeat far-right schemes to privatize Social Security.”
