Martin O'Malley op-ed: "To ensure retirement security, let's start by expanding Social Security"

Martin O'Malley ?@MartinOMalley 4h4 hours ago
We need to expand Social Security benefits to provide a foundation for a more secure retirement. Read my op-ed: http://omly.us/expand-social

by Martin O'Malley

____Nearly a century ago, during the depths of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised Americans “freedom from fear” and “freedom from want.” To secure these freedoms for older Americans, he created Social Security, committing our nation to the idea that — after a life of hard labor — no elderly American should be forced to languish in poverty.

Today in America, we have lost sight of this goal. The fallout from the financial crisis and the legacy of trickle-down economics cut deeply into public pensions and families’ retirement savings, leaving us with a looming retirement crisis on our hands. Millions of future retirees will not have sufficient resources to maintain their standard of living in retirement. Nearly one in three Americans — and more than one in two under the age of 30 — now has no retirement savings at all.

This is not our American Dream. As a nation, we must do far more to ensure the retirement security of American families. And we should start by expanding Social Security benefits — not cutting them or merely “enhancing them” — to provide a foundation for a more secure retirement to all those who have worked hard to achieve it.

Social Security has worked so well for so long because it is fundamentally fair: Everyone pays in, and everyone receives a payout. It is also progressive, because those who need a little more help in retirement receive slightly greater benefits, as a proportion of their earned income. The result? Social Security now provides a guaranteed retirement or insurance benefit to almost every worker in America — while keeping 15 million elderly Americans out of poverty.

However, despite Social Security’s remarkable success, if you listened to Republicans and even some Democrats talk about the program today, you’d think the sky is falling. But let’s be clear: Social Security is not in crisis. It is not bankrupt, and it would not be better off if it were privatized and run by Wall Street. Those claims are nothing more than misguided attempts to score political points at retirees’ expense.

It’s not the sky that’s falling. It’s the floor that’s falling out from under our seniors.

As Democrats, it is time to stand up for our values and call for the expansion of Social Security for all beneficiaries. Increasing Social Security benefits remains the best and most straightforward way to provide greater retirement security for American families.

Moreover, expanding benefits is affordable. We simply need to make Social Security even fairer and more progressive. We can do this by adjusting the way we collect the payroll taxes that fund Social Security. Right now those taxes are capped, so that they only apply to the first $118,500 of a worker’s income. This essentially means that millionaires stop paying into Social Security in mid-February, while middle class workers contribute a portion of their wages all year.

I believe that the wealthiest among us can afford to contribute a little bit more to keep vulnerable Americans out of poverty. As part of the comprehensive retirement security plan I am unveiling this week, I am proposing to lift the payroll cap for the highest earners, starting at income above $250,000. In this way, only wealthier Americans would be asked to pay additional payroll taxes, and we could still raise enough revenue to shore up Social Security’s finances for generations to come.

In addition to expanding Social Security benefits, my plan would increase the minimum Social Security benefit so that no one who works 30 years will spend their golden years in poverty. I would also reform Social Security to support, rather than penalize, caregiving. Women who take extended time off to care for their families should not receive lower Social Security benefits when they retire.

Together, these and other measures in my plan will help increase the number of Americans with adequate retirement savings by 50 percent in eight years. This is a critical component of the top 15 Goals to Rebuild the American Dream that I’ve set for an O’Malley Administration.

Of course, there are other things we must do to improve Americans’ retirement security. It is especially important that we raise wages for all workers, because when 70 percent of us are making the same or less than we were 12 years ago, fewer and fewer of us will be able to save enough for a secure retirement.

But expanding and strengthening Social Security is the first and most important step, and one that I will continue to advocate in support of throughout my presidential campaign.

We shouldn’t ask seniors with modest savings to live on even less. As progressives, it is our responsibility to ensure that Americans who put in a lifetime of hard work are able to retire with the dignity they deserve.


http://qctimes.com/news/opinion/mailbag/to-ensure-retirement-security-let-s-start-by-expanding-social/article_fb25c252-dc5a-5f21-b200-950075bad574.html

Martin O'Malley's Plan to Expand Social Security
https://martinomalley.com/the-latest/expanding-social-security/