Voters in the United States support Democratic proposals to expand Social Security for all recipients to cover higher costs of living and oppose Republican proposals to completely end the federal program — which was established during the New Deal era to improve economic security for retirees, people with disabilities, and widows and widowers — before the end of the decade.
Voters support Democratic proposals to expand Social Security for all recipients to cover higher costs of living in an overwhelming majority.
This is according to a new survey that was conducted from June 17-21 and published on Monday by Data for Progress.
The survey found that an astounding 83 per cent of likely voters support expanding Social Security benefits to keep up with rising costs. This includes 86 per cent of Democrats, 84 per cent of Republicans, and 79 per cent of independents. The survey was conducted in the United States.
More than half of those who are likely to vote are very concerned about the possibility of lawmakers privatizing Social Security, while nearly two-thirds of those who are likely to vote are very concerned about Congress cutting monthly cash transfers for the program’s 66 million current beneficiaries.
Sixty-eight per cent of likely voters are opposed to Wall Street-backed schemes that would facilitate the movement of Social Security benefits from a guaranteed government fund into the volatile stock market.
This includes seventy-five per cent of Democrats, seventy per cent of Republicans, and fifty-nine per cent of independent voters. The opposition to the privatization of the program spans the political spectrum.
The findings of the poll should be of interest to President Joe Biden, who is losing support among Democratic voters and has come under fire in recent weeks for nominating Andrew Biggs to serve on the independent and bipartisan Social Security Advisory Board.
Biggs is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and has a history of supporting Social Security privatization.
Social Security Works, a progressive advocacy group, has brought attention to Biggs’ role in the unsuccessful attempt that the George W. Bush administration made in 2005 to privatize the program.
In the course of his campaign, Joe Biden made a commitment to support an extension of Social Security; nevertheless, in the past, he has advocated for cutting benefits from the program.
When former President Barack Obama floated the idea of a “grand bargain” with congressional Republicans, Biden was serving as vice president at the time. Obama’s plan called for reducing funding for Social Security.
Sens. Bernie Sanders (Independent–Vermont) and Elizabeth Warren (Democrat–Massachusetts) were the driving forces behind the introduction of the Social Security Expansion Act at the beginning of this month.
If passed, this legislation would raise the maximum amount of income that is subject to the Social Security payroll tax and would increase the annual benefits provided by the program by $2,400.
According to Data for Progress, 76 per cent of likely voters are in favour of imposing, for the first time, payroll taxes on individuals with annual incomes that are greater than $400,000 per year to fund an expansion of Social Security benefits.
This includes 83 per cent of Democrats, 73 per cent of Republicans, and 73 per cent of independent voters. At this time, only individuals with an annual income of $147,000 or less are required to pay the Social Security payroll tax.
In the meantime, a budget document that received little attention when it was published last month by the Republican Study Committee (RSC)—a group to which nearly 75 per cent of House Republicans belong—reiterates right-wing myths that the program is headed toward insolvency and calls for raising the retirement age by three months per year through 2040.
As a direct consequence of this change, persons who were born after 1978 will have to wait until they are 70 years old before they are entitled to receive their full Social Security benefits.
When compared to the proposal that Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), has put forward, the effort by the RSC to delay the eligibility age for Social Security benefits, which is outlined in their so-called Blueprint to Save America, is not even the most extreme proposal that the GOP has put forward.
In his 12-point “Plan to Rescue America,” which has received widespread criticism, Scott proposes increasing taxes on the 40 per cent of American households with the lowest incomes and allowing “all federal legislation” to expire after five years.
This move would result in the repeal of various laws and programs, including Social Security, Medicare, and civil rights laws unless Congress took affirmative action to reauthorize them. Scott’s “Plan to Rescue America” has been roundly criticized.
According to Data for Progress, only seven per cent of people who are likely to cast ballots are in favour of terminating Social Security within the next five years. This may help explain why Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) declined to endorse Scott’s policy agenda in March.
Nonetheless, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), the ranking member of the influential Senate Budget Committee, said last month during a debate with committee chair Bernie Sanders that “entitlement reform is a must.”
This indicates that the Republican Party is once again laying the groundwork to gut Social Security, Medicare, and other programs if it regains control of Congress in the pivotal midterm elections that will take place in November.
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When notified that Democrats in Congress are seeking to increase Social Security payments while their Republican counterparts are proposing to reduce them, prospective voters were more likely to vote for the Democrats.
Respondents that they would be most likely to vote for a Democratic candidate over a Republican one by a margin of 55 to 31, said that they would most likely back a politician who proposed to immediately stop the program.
This means that if Democrats want to keep or perhaps increase their already thin majorities in the House and Senate, they should focus their campaigns on expanding Social Security.
