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“Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) released the first in a multipart video series highlighting Social Security’s dire financial outlook on Monday, featuring him taking to the streets for man-on-the-street-style interviews in which he prescribed some solutions and knocked 2024 hopefuls for shying away from reform…
“‘Social Security is going insolvent in nine years. When that happens, benefits are cut by 24% for all current and future beneficiaries,’ Cassidy said. ‘We have a ‘Big Idea’ to save Social Security, and I am presenting it to these fellow Americans to see how they like it.’
“That ‘Big Idea’ Cassidy refers to is the establishment of a separate fund to strengthen Social Security via private investments.
“‘We would take some dollars, not Social Security money, set up a fund separate from Social Security, and we invest that fund in the U.S. economy. And as that money grows, we use it in order to help Social Security become solid,’ Cassidy explained in the video.
“People on the street featured in his video seemed receptive to it…
“Cassidy is leading a working group with Sen. Angus King (I-ME) on how to avert the program’s projected insolvency. Cassidy is the ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
“One projection from the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the program’s Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance trust funds will be depleted by 2033 and 2048, respectively…”
Read the full article here.
Background
Cassidy is leading a bipartisan working group with U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) to preserve and protect Social Security.
This week, he released the inaugural, Bill on the Hill video, where he asked Capitol Hill visitors from across the country their thoughts on the looming 24% benefit cut to Social Security and presented his “Big Idea” to save, strengthen, and secure America’s retirement system.
At a Senate Finance Hearing in March, he questioned U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on the Biden administration’s lack of a plan to address Social Security at a Senate Finance hearing. He also delivered a speech on the Senate floor calling on President Biden to honor his pledge to protect Social Security and meet with a bipartisan group of senators currently discussing options to save the program.
Last month, Cassidy outlined his Social Security plan in a fireside chat with the Bipartisan Policy Committee and he recently authored an op-ed in the National Review.
In March, the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds moved up the Social Security insolvency deadline a full year. One month prior, the Congressional Budget Office updated its estimates saying Social Security is heading toward a financial cliff in 2032. They found Medicare and Social Security spending rapidly outpacing federal tax revenues further hastening the insolvency deadlines.
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