New Social Security 2100 Bill to Expand Payroll Tax Coming Next Week

By Melanie Waddell

News October 15, 2021 at 11:02 AM

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House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John Larson, D-Conn., plans to introduce next week a bill — titled Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust — intended to strengthen Social Security and expand benefits.

Larson said Wednesday that while the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2022 of 5.9% "is welcome news, it only further underscores the need for Congress to act on Social Security."

Larson noted in a statement that "it has been more than 50 years since Congress has improved Social Security benefits. Seniors are suffering — five million are living below the poverty line — current Social Security benefits are not enough!"

The revised bill would increase benefits and extend the program's solvency. Larson announced in early September that he planned to introduce the bill.

The bill would impose the payroll tax on wages over $400,000 a year. Full details are not yet available, but the bill also "increases benefits across the board" and is expected to change the way cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) are calculated, according to the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare.

Walter Gottlieb of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare told ThinkAdvisor in a previous interview that Larson's original Social Security 2100 Act "included a 2% benefit boost for all beneficiaries. We would expect a similar provision in Sacred Trust but the details of that are not public yet."

The COLA, Larson said Wednesday, "simply protects benefits against losing their purchasing power over time when the cost of rent, food, and other expenses increase, and is partially consumed by Medicare premiums. Congress has failed seniors and that needs to change."

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