Democrats aim to expand Social Security if they retake Congress

Key Democrats said Wednesday they want to protect Social Security in the short term by reversing Trump administration cuts to the agency and in the long term by raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for an expansion of benefits.

Expanding Social Security will be on the agenda next Congress if Democrats retake the House, party lawmakers and activists said on a press call hosted by Social Security Works, a liberal advocacy group.

“When we take back the House of Representatives, this will be our top priority, and action will take place within the first 100 days,” said Connecticut Rep. John Larson, the top Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees Social Security.

The comments came ahead of the 90th anniversary of Social Security on Thursday as the program faces immediate and long-term challenges.

Democrats decried President Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency’s cutbacks to the Social Security Administration, which saw at least 7,000 workers fired and field offices closed across the country.

“I believe that probably a lot more than 7,000 people have left, given the hostile work environment that they have created there,” said Martin O’Malley, a Democrat who served as President Joe Biden’s Social Security commissioner.

Mr. O’Malley cited “field offices teetering on the brink of collapse because they just don’t have the staff to see people” and a “rash decision to rip 1,000 people out of field offices and suddenly make them 1-800 number call takers” as disrupting customer service.

“There’s a very, very real danger that, for the very first time in 90 years, we’re going to see an interruption of benefits,” he said.

The Social Security Administration counters that in July its technology enhancements, including the new national 800 number, has led to improved service.

The 800 number fielded nearly 1.3 million calls the week of July 14, which the agency said was 70% more than the same week last year, while reducing the average wait time to six minutes, down from 30 minutes last year.

The wait time in field offices, which was also 30 minutes last year, has been reduced to 23 minutes this year, the agency said.

Meanwhile, the White House is trying to cut what it calls “jaw-dropping” fraud in the Social Security system, with its rampant issuing of benefits to noncitizens.

Sen. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats, announced legislation that would reverse the Trump administration cuts and give the Social Security Administration an additional $5 billion to improve customer service, modernize technology and reduce backlogs.

“Each and every year, some 30,000 people with disabilities die waiting for their Social Security benefits to be approved. That is not acceptable,” Mr. Sanders said. “Trump’s cuts will make this horrific situation even worse, and we are not going to allow that to happen.”

Social Security benefits could be under a long-term threat as actuaries project that without changes to the law to shore up the program’s solvency, it will stop paying full benefits before the 100th anniversary.

The Social Security Board of Trustees said in its annual report to Congress, released in June, that the combined reserves of the two Social Security trust funds will be depleted in 2034 and that projected income will be enough to sustain payment of only 81% of scheduled benefits.

Karen Glenn, Social Security’s chief actuary, has since said the reserve depletion will occur half a year earlier, in the first quarter of 2034 instead of the third, because of income tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The law will reduce revenue from income taxes on Social Security benefits that are deposited back into the trust funds.

“We have to be committed and persistent, not just to protect Social Security, but it needs to be expanded,” Mr. Larson said. “There’s a lot to celebrate about the 90th anniversary, but nothing to celebrate when 5 million of our fellow Americans get below-poverty-level checks from the wealthiest nation in the world.”

Mr. Larson said Social Security was last significantly expanded in 1972 during the Nixon administration and that another revamp is long overdue.

He has long sponsored legislation, supported by fellow Democrats, that would provide a 2% across-the-board increase in benefits paid for by taxing wages above $400,000, which are currently exempt from Social Security taxes.

American workers pay 6.2% of their paychecks toward Social Security, with employers contributing the same amount. However, unlike with Medicare taxes, a maximum amount of wages can be taxed for Social Security: currently $176,100 and adjusted annually for inflation.

Democrats want to lift that cap, although their proposals have been focused on taxing income above $400,000, leaving some wages between the current cap and that amount still untaxed.

“If you lift that cap, we can substantially increase benefits, which is what we’ve got to do, and extend the life of Social Security for many, many decades,” Mr. Sanders said.

Mr. Larson has yet to introduce an updated version of his bill, called Social Security 2100, this Congress. But the previous version added an additional 12.4% net investment income tax on taxpayers making over $400,000 since most wealthy individuals earn more from investments than wages.

“Social Security and lots of the tax system can be avoided by billionaires,” Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said. “They got something called buy, borrow and die, and they don’t pay into anything.”