Could This New Bill Finally Fix Social Security? AARP Isn’t So Sure

A new bipartisan bill designed to break Congress’s decades-long deadlock over fixing Social Security has drawn criticism from AARP. The PROMISE Act would create a fast-track process intended to produce recommendations before Social Security’s trust the Social Security trust funds becoming exhausted in 2032.

AARP’s criticism surprised us because the organization has long urged Congress to address Social Security’s looming financing shortfall. Without legislation, current projections show benefits would see about a 22% cut beginning in 2032. AARP’s concern is not with solving the problem, but with how the solutions would be developed.

The legislation does not change Social Security benefits directly. Instead, it creates a bipartisan process for developing a long-term solvency plan that Congress would then vote on.

The AARP would prefer that the changes proposed for Social Security reform be made through “regular order”, rather than a fast-tracked small committee. In a letter to the bill’s sponsors, AARP Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer Nancy LeaMond wrote: “If regular order is the gold standard for routine legislative matters, it certainly should be the standard for something as important as Social Security.”

Leamond went on to write to the bill’s sponsors that:“Your legislation would require an unelected, four-member Advisory Board to put together a 50-year solvency plan in just over a month, with little time for deliberation and limited public input.”

The good news

Whatever happens to the PROMISE Act, one encouraging development is that Congress is finally debating how to address Social Security’s long-term finances. For decades, lawmakers have largely avoided making the difficult choices needed to preserve the program. While the solutions will undoubtedly be controversial, acting soon would allow smaller, more gradual changes than waiting until the trust funds are nearly exhausted.

Action point
Ask all your political candidates what they are going to do to fix Social Security. If they say cut waste and fraud, that’s fine, but it is not enough. Our solution would be to tax all earnings and perhaps make a slight increase in the contribution rate – what is yours!