Strengthening Social Security
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced a 0.3 percent cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for 2017. The increase is based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W for short. Whether this formula is the best way to determine COLA increases for Social Security beneficiaries is an open question – one of many questions facing the program.
In late 2015, I joined the Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee. This role allows me to work directly on solutions to shore up the program so many Nebraskans have paid into throughout their lives, expecting it would be there for them in retirement.
The Social Security Trustees released their 2016 report in June, which showed Social Security remains on a track toward insolvency by 2034 and reinforced the need to act now to strengthen it. President Obama announced his Social Security plan around the same time, which called for giving out more money while increasing payroll taxes.
Shortly after, the Social Security Subcommittee held a hearing with SSA Chief Actuary Stephen Goss. When asked whether Social Security would be solvent if every dollar of earnings was subject to the payroll tax, Mr. Goss replied it would not. This does not even take into account the expanded benefits President Obama suggested. The President’s plan would lead to higher taxes while likely pushing Social Security further into insolvency.
At a second hearing with Mr. Goss in September, I asked him about the memos his office produces on various plans to reform Social Security. These memos are vital to determining which suggested solutions could ensure the program’s solvency, but they currently do not analyze the impacts of additional taxes proposed by some plans. Mr. Goss responded with assurances they are working toward providing this necessary information in future reports.
In addition to financial challenges, other threats such as identity theft are deeply concerning. The House passed a bill, which originated in the Social Security Subcommittee, at the end of September to require the SSA to remove Social Security Numbers (SSNs) from mailings when they are not necessary and to justify when mailings need SSNs.
In 2015, the SSA sent approximately 233 million documents containing full SSNs. Disturbingly, the SSA Inspector General found as many as 51 percent of the addresses used by the SSA for some of its mailings have been inaccurate. Under the legislation passed by the House, the SSA would be required to remove SSNs from all unnecessary mailings as soon as possible and report back to Congress on its progress twice each year.
We are also working to protect the Second Amendment rights of Social Security beneficiaries. In his list of executive actions in January, President Obama included a proposal to report all 4.2 million Social Security beneficiaries with representative payees to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Assigning a representative payee to manage one’s finances does not mean a person is violent or dangerous. Additionally, as I highlighted in a hearing in May, the SSA’s decades-old listings are not a reliable measure of mental capacity to own a gun today, and the SSA continues to miss deadlines to update these standards. I am a cosponsor of the Social Security Beneficiary 2nd Amendment Rights Protection Act to ensure determinations made by the SSA cannot be used to revoke constitutional rights.
Millions of Americans depend on Social Security as part of their retirement savings, and they are also depending on us to strengthen the program. We must act now, not later, to put Social Security on a sustainable path.