'A Solution for All Generations': With Plan for Social Security Expansion, Warren Demands Rich Pay Fair Share to Lift 5 Million Out of Poverty

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday unveiled her plan to expand Social Security benefits for senior citizens and future generations after retirement, a proposal she would fund with an increase in taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

The Massachusetts Democrats’s expansion of the 84-year-old program would immediately increase benefits for seniors by $200 per month, or $2,400 per year, while adding even more to benefits for retired women, lower income households, people with disabilities, and others who face disproportionately low wages throughout their working lives.

The plan would be financed by new requirements for the highest earners to contribute their “fair share” to the national Social Security fund. The fund currently contains $3 trillion but has been threatened for years with proposed cuts and privatization by Republicans and which has yielded smaller and smaller benefits for retirees in recent years.

“Because of inadequate contributions to the program by the rich, we are projected to draw down that reserve by 2035, prompting automatic 20 percent across-the-board benefit cuts if nothing is done,” Warren wrote.

The top two percent of earners—those making individual wages above $250,000—would be required to contribute 14.8 percent of their wages to Social Security benefits. Investment income for the wealthiest earners and families would also be subject to a 14.8 percent contribution.

“The plan results in a much more progressive Social Security system,” wrote Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, in an independent analysis, “as high-income people shoulder the financial burden of the plan, while low- and middle-income people benefit substantially.”

The plan was praised by Social Security Works, a national group that works to protect the program.

“Senator Elizabeth Warren is a powerful leader in the movement to expand Social Security,” said Nancy Altman, president of the group. “Her bold new plan tackles the nation’s looming retirement income crisis head-on, as well as rising income and wealth inequality and the squeeze on working families. It is a solution for all generations.”

Sixty-four million Americans rely on Social Security for at least part of their income, with more than 20 percent of married seniors and 45 percent of unmarried seniors counting on the benefit for 90% of their income.

The numbers are higher for people of color, with 40 percent of Latinx retirees, a third of black seniors, and more than a quarter of Asian and Pacific Islanders relying on the benefits as their only source of income after retirement.

Congress hasn’t increased Social Security benefits in nearly 50 years and President Donald Trump proposed cutting them even further shortly after signing off on a $1.5 trillion tax cut for the wealthiest Americans. Decades of wage stagnation have left the average beneficiary receiving only $1,354 per month from Social Security in 2019.