Social Security reforms face uncertain future in Senate

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

12/01/24 6:00 AM ET


A House-passed bill to reform aspects of Social Security is lingering in the Senate as questions bubble up over its path forward. The House approved the bill — which would do away with rules backers say have led to unfair reductions in benefits for some who have worked in public service — by a wide margin earlier this month. But some are concerned about the measure’s chances in the Senate as lawmakers face a ticking clock before a new Congress is ushered in.

“There’s been some talk about trying to make it part of the end-of-the-year negotiation. I think that’s, I think that’s really an effort to kill it,” outgoing Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), who co-authored the bill, said before Congress left town for Thanksgiving recess.
Graves expressed confidence that the bill, which passed with nearly 300 votes in the House, has the support in the Senate to pass as a stand-alone bill.

But he added that “anything else is really putting us on a slow path toward death — and I think it’s intentional.” If passed, the bill, known as the Social Security Fairness Act, would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). Experts say the tax rules are aimed at preventing people who have worked much of their careers in public service from collecting both their pensions and relatively higher Social Security payouts.

The GPO also leads to reductions in benefits for the spouses that receive government pensions. But cases where the policies have led to over- or undercorrections for beneficiaries have helped fuel calls for reforms or a complete overhaul of the measures.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/5013493-social-security-bill-senate/

[RVN VET71]

1. This needs a more prominent place in the news

It won't get it, of course. But it does deserve a more prominent place in the news. Public servants spend their careers working for the public and are penalized in the way their Social Security benefits are calculated. They are also penalized by being disqualified for Social Security widow/'widowers benefits.

I am a Federal retiree. I have worked in positions subject to Social Security and paid the tax (am paying it still, as I continue working after my retirement from government) but my benefit is calculated at about half what it would have been had I not worked for the government as well as the private sector. And, while my spouse stands to receive a decent widow's pension from my Government service should I pre-decease her, I stand to receive nothing at all from her Social Security should she pre-decease me. Curious, I think, since I have paid for my SSA benefit while working subject to the tax and ask only that my benefit be calculated based on what I paid and using the same formula as others. More irritating is that my spouse has paid into social security her entire working life -- and she, too, continues to work and pay the tax -- but has had the right to provide a survivor benefit stripped from her, a right that would have been hers had she married a non-governmental worker.

(End note: since the actuarial demise of Social Security is going to begin in 2033 or thereabouts, my complaints will probably not mean much after that date. Only Congress can fix the systemic problems intrinsic in the system -- and with the current MAGA Congress, there will be no fixing of the system, and the so-called "Representatives of the people" will party hardy as they watch the whole system just fade slowly away.)