Joe Biden & Bernie Sanders' Voting Records on Social Security

Hey All!



Todays’ post is going to cover Joe Biden & Bernie Sanders’ records on Social Security (links to sources included). For their complete stances on SS:

Joe Biden: https://www.ontheissues.org/2020/Joe_Biden_Social_Security.htm

Bernie Sanders: https://www.ontheissues.org/Economic/Bernie_Sanders_Social_Security.htm



Let’s go ahead and start with our first topic of Social Security. Joe Biden & Bernie Sanders currently as of today both favor expanding Social Security benefits and both have a 85%+ pro-senior voting record according to the ARA (Association of Retired Americans). But, let’s go ahead and take a look back into the past and see if those positions are the same one Joe Biden & Bernie Sanders take today.



We will go ahead and start w/ Joe Biden and his past positions on Social Security. Joe has been given an 89% Pro-Senior Voting Record from the ARA. But, you don’t have to look too far back into the past to see that Joe’s current position is not in line with his voting record in the past. To start, Joe Biden as recent as of 2018, and as far back as 1984, called for cuts to Social Security in the sake of saving the program & balancing the federal budget. (https://theintercept.com/2020/01/13/biden-cuts-social-security/).



Back in 1995, talking on the floor of the Senate about the Balanced Budget Act, Joe Biden said, “When I argued that we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security as well,” he told the Senate in 1995. “I meant Medicare and Medicaid. I meant veterans’ benefits. I meant every single solitary thing in the government. And I not only tried it once, I tried it twice, I tried it a third time, and I tried it a fourth time.” (A freeze would have reduced the amount that would be paid out, cutting the program’s benefit.) (https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4846580/user-clip-joe-biden-cut-ss-4-times)



According to Ryan Grim of The Intercept, “

BIDEN’S FIXATION on cutting Social Security dates back to the Reagan era. One of Ronald Reagan’s first major moves as president was to implement a mammoth tax cut, tilted toward the wealthy, and to increase defense spending. Biden, a Delaware senator at the time, supported both moves. The heightened spending and reduced revenue focused public attention on the debt and deficit, giving fuel to a push for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.



In the midst of that debate, Biden teamed up with Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley to call for a freeze on federal spending, and insisted on including Social Security in that freeze, even as the Reagan administration fought to protect the program from cuts. It was part of the Democratic approach at the time not just to match Republicans, but to get to their right at times as well, as Biden also did on criminal justice policy.

“So, when those of my friends in the Democratic and Republican Party say to me, ‘How do you expect me to vote for your proposal? Does it not freeze Social Security COLAs for one year? Are we not saying there will be no cost-of-living increases for one year?’ The answer to that is ‘Yes, that is what I am saying,’” Biden said in a Senate floor speech in April 1984, referring to the adjustment that millions of seniors look for every year. (https://theintercept.com/2020/01/13/biden-cuts-social-security/)





Joe Biden later on went on to say in 1988, “I introduced an amendment, notwithstanding my quote liberal credentials, of freezing the federal budget, absolute freeze,” Biden boasted. “I did it for a simple reason: I sat on the Budget Committee for 11 years. And I’d find the same thing occur every time. We’d start off with grandiose ideas of how we’re going to cut the budget. We would never touch entitlements, we would never touch the defense budget, and we couldn’t touch the interest on the debt. Which meant that out of a trillion-dollar budget, that left us only $156 billion And what we would do each year is we would go out and cut out education, food stamps, Head Start, [welfare] payments, on down the line, everything that I cared about got cut, because at the very end, we’d say, ‘Well, we’ve gotta make some cuts.’ And that would be the path of least resistance.” (https://theintercept.com/2020/01/13/biden-cuts-social-security/)





In November 1995, Joe Biden again reminded the public of his deficit hawkery. “I am a Democrat that voted for the constitutional amendment to balance the budget. I have introduced on four occasions — four occasions — entire plans to balance a budget,” he said on the Senate floor. “I tried with Senator Grassley back in the 1980s to freeze all government spending, including Social Security, including everything.”

Biden pushed for an amendment to carve Social Security out of the balanced budget amendment. Clear as it may have been, the amendment to protect Social Security failed. Biden voted for the balanced budget amendment anyway, even after his multiple warnings that it would undercut Social Security.

It was, in fact, the argument over Social Security that torpedoed the balanced budget amendment by a single vote on the Senate floor, after it had already passed the House. “After days of persuasion, the Republicans supporting the amendment were unable to attract the one last vote they needed for a two-thirds majority, resulting in a victory for Democrats, who raised doubts in the final hours about whether the Social Security trust fund would be safe if the measure became law,” the New York Times reported in March 1995. Biden’s inability to bring along one additional Democratic colleague had saved the program, and saved the Constitution from being amended with a draconian fiscal constraint mechanism.

Ironically, the budget would reach balance anyway by the end of the decade, as federal revenue climbed — the result of an economy in hyperdrive thanks to a tech bubble. President George W. Bush turned that surplus into a mammoth tax cut for the wealthy, and within just a few years, Biden was again calling for cuts to Social Security to deal with the deficit. (https://theintercept.com/2020/01/13/biden-cuts-social-security/)





Asked in 2007, when Joe Biden was running to be the Democratic Nominee, on Meet the Press w/ Tim Russert, would Social Security or Medicare every be on the table (age of eligibility & cost of living), Joe Biden responded saying:

“The answer is absolutely,” Biden said, reminding Russert that earlier in his career, he had been part of the small number of senators who had come up with the deal that raised the retirement age, and promised to protect each other from voters outraged at the cuts:

I was one of five people — I was the junior guy in the meeting with Bob Dole and George Mitchell when we put Social Security on the right path for 60 years. I’ll never forget what Bob Dole said. After we reached an agreement about gradually raising the retirement age, etc., he said, ‘Look, here’s the deal, we all put our foot in the boat one at a time.’ And he kicked — he stepped like he was stepping into a boat. ‘And we all make the following deal. If any one of the challengers running against the incumbent Democrat or Republicans attack us on this point, we’ll all stay together.’ That’s the kind of leadership that is needed. Social Security’s not the hard one to solve. Medicare, that is the gorilla in the room, and you’ve got to put all of it on the table.

Joe Biden has continued to say such things until at least 2018, when at the Brookings Institute he said, “Paul Ryan was correct when he did the tax code. What’s the first thing he decided we had to go after? Social Security and Medicare. Now, we need to do something about Social Security and Medicare,” Biden said, then added in a whisper: “That’s the only way you can find room to pay for it.”

Last week, the Biden campaign told Politifact that Biden was mocking Ryan and being sarcastic. Immediately after his whisper, he went into the kinds of adjustments to Social Security he thought should be made, the same type that Paul said he told him supported privately.

“Now, I don’t know a whole lot of people in the top one-tenth of 1 percent or the top 1 percent who are relying on Social Security when they retire. I don’t know a lot of them,” Biden said, alluding to the need to means-test Social Security. “So we need a pro-growth, progressive tax code that treats workers as job creators, as well, not just investors; that gets rid of unproductive loopholes like stepped-up basis; and it raises enough revenue to make sure that the Social Security and Medicare can stay, it still needs adjustments, but can stay; and pay for the things we all acknowledge will grow the country.”

When the program is popular, “adjustment” is a Washington euphemism for cuts. But you can count on Trump to use the more common term. (https://theintercept.com/2020/01/13/biden-cuts-social-security/)





Now, since we have delved into Joe Biden’s record on Social Security pretty well, now let’s go ahead and take a look at Bernie Sanders’ record on Social Security.



Bernie Sanders, to start, has 100% Pro-Senior Voting Record from the ARA & a 100% Pro-Trust Fund Stance also from the ARA. Bernie Sanders has also sponsored keeping CPI benefits instead of lowered, “Chained CPI”. What this means is that:

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION expressing the sense of the Congress that the Chained Consumer Price Index (CPI) should not be used to adjust Social Security benefits.

• WHEREAS the Social Security program continues to provide modest benefits--averaging approximately $14,000 per year--to more than 53,000,000 individuals

• WHEREAS the Trust Fund can pay full benefits through 2032;

• WHEREAS the Social Security program is designed to ensure that benefits keep pace with inflation through cost-of-living adjustments based on the CPI which measures prices of goods and services;

• WHEREAS the Chained CPI adjusts for projected changes in consumer behavior resulting from price fluctuations known as the 'substitution effect', which occurs when consumers buy alternative goods and services whose prices are rising more slowly than average;

• Now, therefore, be it RESOLVED that the Chained CPI should not be used to calculate cost of living adjustments for Social Security benefits.

Opponent's argument against bill:(Congressional Testimony by Jeffrey Kling, Congressional Budget Office Associate Director for Economic Analysis, April 18, 2013):

The chained CPI grows more slowly than the trad

Source: H.CON.RES.34 & S.Con.Res.15 13-SCR15 on Apr 18, 2013

He rejected proposals for Private Savings Accounts:

Sanders co-sponsored rejecting proposals for private saving accounts

To reject proposals to partially or completely substitute private saving accounts for the lifelong, guaranteed, inflation-protected insurance benefits provided through Social Security. The Congress finds the following:

1. President Bush promised to partially privatize Social Security, and appointed a commission to develop a plan on his behalf.

2. The commission developed three alternative plans that would partially privatize Social Security.

3. The plans divert substantial monies from the Social Security Trust Funds to pay for the private accounts, which threatens benefits for current beneficiaries by significantly weakening the financial condition of the Trust Funds.

4. The plans' cuts in disability and survivor benefits directly contradict the President's promise that disability and survivor benefits would be preserved under privatization.

5. Furthermore, these reductions in guaranteed benefits apply to all workers, regardless of whether they chose to have an individual account or not.

6. Substituting private accounts for guaranteed Social Security benefits increases financial risk for retirees, disabled workers and their families.

7. Moreover, other proposals to privatize Social Security, such as the 'Social Security Guarantee Plus' plan or the 'Social Security Ownership and Guarantee' plan, establish private accounts that directly or indirectly reduce Social Security benefits.

• The Congress hereby commits to preserve the guaranteed, lifelong, inflation-protected benefits provided under the Social Security Act to retirees, disabled workers and their families, and the survivors of deceased workers; and

• Congress therefore rejects the President's plans to partially privatize Social Security, and other proposals to privatize Social Security by establishing private accounts that would undermine traditional Social Security benefits.

Source: H.R.4780 02-H4780 on May 21, 2002



He also voted “Yes” on strengthening the SS Lockbox.

Amending the Social Security Lockbox bill to require that any budget surplus cannot be spent until the solvency of Social Security and Medicare is guaranteed.

Reference: Motion to Recommit introduced by Rangel, D-NY; Bill HR 1259 ; vote number 1999-163 on May 26, 1999



He is for Raising the SS cap up to $250K on Taxable income:

Raise the Social Security cap on taxable income

I believe that, as opposed to my Republican colleagues who want to cut Social Security, I believe we should expand Social Security by lifting the cap on taxable income.



We should lift the cap on taxable income coming into the Social Security Trust Fund, starting at $250,000. We expand Social Security by $1,300 a year for people under $16,000, and we extend the life of Social Security for 58 years. The wealthiest people will pay more in taxes. I will do everything I can to expand Social Security benefits, not just for seniors, but for disabled veterans, as well.

Source: 2016 PBS Democratic debate in Wisconsin , Feb 11, 2016





He thinks it’s Criminal to not have Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) for Seniors:

he Social Security administration said that there would not be a COLA [cost-of-living adjustments] for our seniors and disabled people. That's only the third time in the last 40 years. I think that's absurd.

Prescription drug costs have gone up. Seniors are paying more. We need to change the formula and we've got legislation in to do that, to ascertain what real cost of living is for seniors.

And I am going to fight very hard. You've got millions of seniors trying to get by on $13,000, $14,000 a year making choices between medicine and food. That is criminal. And we've got to change the formula by which COLAs are depended--are created so that seniors get a fair shake.

Source: ABC This Week 2015 interview by Martha Raddatz , Oct 18, 2015



Bernie is responsible for helping to create “The Social Security Caucus”:

As a staunch defender of Social Security, I helped lead the fight against Republicans, and some Democrats, who wanted to cut this program--which is life and death for so many seniors and people with disabilities. Working with seniors' organizations, I helped create the Defending Social Security Caucus. The other senators in the caucus and I took on the Bowles-Simpson Commission, billionaire Pete Peterson and his organization, and a whole lot of other groups that wanted to cut Social Security in one way or another. In the end, barely, we managed to prevail--and Social Security was not touched.

Source: Our Revolution, by Bernie Sanders, p. 45 , Nov 15, 2016



And, Bernie believes that we have to do better on SSDI (Social Security Disability Income) & Elderly Poverty:

When people become old, they often become frail and sick. They are unable to work and earn an income. In a civilized society, the older generation--the people who raised us--are entitled, and allowed, to live out their remaining years in dignity and security. For millions of seniors, that is most certainly not the case. We must change that.

Social Security is the most successful government program in our nation's history. Before Social Security was signed into law, nearly half of our senior citizens lived in poverty. Today the elderly poverty rate is 8.8%.

Social Security is not just a retirement program. It is an insurance program that protects millions of Americans who become disabled. Incredibly, the only source of income for about 3 million persons with disabilities is a Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefit that averages just $35 a day. Today, 28.5 percent of disabled Americans are living in poverty. We have got to do a lot better than that.

Source: Our Revolution, by Bernie Sanders, p. 411-3 , Nov 15, 2016



I hope what I’ve written is a least a little bit more of an insight into the difference(s) between Joe Biden & Bernie Sanders on Social Security.



























Reply · Report Post