2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumBernie Sanders Urges Hillary To Back A Plan Raising Social Security Benefits To Help Seniors
Press Release
Sanders Challenges Clinton on Social Security
April 9, 2016
Sanders stops at Bronx Community College and at the United Palace in Manhattans Washington Heights neighborhood were part of a presidential campaign tour of New York City boroughs.
More than 1,000 backers turned out to hear Sanders in Washington Heights and more than 800 supporters in the Bronx packed an auditorium in the Gould Memorial Library and an overflow room at the college.
Sanders said seniors in New York and across the United States dont have enough income to heat their homes or feed themselves and many are forced to cut their pills in half to save money on prescription drugs. These are the people who built this country our parents, our grandparents. We should not be treating them that way.
Clinton, Sanders rival for the Democratic Party nomination, has refused to back Sanders plan to strengthen Social Security. In fact, Clinton has left open the possibility that she would support raising the retirement age at which seniors become eligible for Social Security. I would consider it, she told a town meeting in New Hampshire last Oct. 28.
In New York, more than 3.5 million seniors, orphans, widows, widowers and disabled people received Social Security benefits last year. The average annual benefit totaled only $15,000.
Without Social Security, more than 43 percent of the elderly in New York, including more than 48 percent of senior women, would be living in poverty. With Social Security, the elderly poverty rate in New York is 11.6 percent.
Sanders has introduced legislation to make the wealthiest Americans who make more than $250,000 a year pay the same share of their income into the retirement system as everyone else. Current law now caps the amount of income subject to payroll taxes at $118,500.
Under Sanders plan, a senior making less than $16,000 a year would see income go up by more than $1,300 a year.
The measure also would increase cost-of-living adjustments. This year, for only the third time in four decades, seniors on Social Security did not receive a cost-of-living increase. Sanders legislation would increase COLAs by more accurately measuring the spending patterns of seniors. Under current law, the consumer price index used to calculate annual benefit adjustments does not accurately reflect how inflation in health care costs and prescription drug prices impact seniors.
The proposal to lift the cap would raise taxes only on the wealthiest 1.5 percent of Americans. Sanders plan is patterned after a proposal to scrap the cap first brought forward by President Barack Obama in 2008.
According to new estimates from the Social Security Administration, Sanders plan would extend the solvency of Social Security until the year 2074.
The senator from Vermont who was born and raised in Brooklyn was headed later Saturday to a third rally in Queens before capping the day with a nighttime event at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
https://berniesanders.com/press-release/sanders-challenges-clinton-social-security/
Cheese Sandwich
(9,086 posts)CorporatistNation
(2,546 posts)WHAT MORE DOES ANYONE NEED TO KNOW! Even if she went for this... Would anyone trust her to follow through...? Even her most ardent supporters would they expect her to stick to her "promise" based on a change in position on the issue.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)She can't. She never commits to helping US.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)From the link below: "Hillary understands that there is no way to accomplish that goal without asking the highest-income Americans to pay more, including options to tax some of their income above the current Social Security cap, and taxing some of their income not currently taken into account by the Social Security system."
"Expand Social Security for those who need it most and who are treated unfairly by the current systemincluding women who are widows and those who took significant time out of the paid workforce to take care of their children, aging parents, or ailing family members."
More at link.
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/social-security-and-medicare/
She is way ahead of him on this issue. But, you know... it doesn't really count until a man explains it.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)imagine2015
(2,054 posts)Oh ya! Way ahead of Bernie on this issue!
Thanks for your input.
nichomachus
(12,754 posts)Look at her past performance, not her campaign crap. She'd toss those plans in the dumper as soon as the crown is on her head.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)imagine2015
(2,054 posts)CharlotteVale
(2,717 posts)nichomachus
(12,754 posts)What she says she'll do bears no resemblance to what she will do. Don't look at her bullshit promises. Look at her past performance. She is dangerous to working people. She and her clan have never done an honest day's work in their lives. They are parasites.