Labor & Employment Law

Dems Urge McConnell, Republicans to Take Social Security High Road

By Mike Hall

When Democratic congressional leaders introduce emergency relief legislation for a $250 supplemental Social Security payment, they will offer Republicans?who have blocked emergency help in the past?a chance to take the high road. The supplement would help recipients who are not getting a cost of living adjustment for the second straight year.

In a letter, Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and 20 senators, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), say:

We hope that you will agree with us that it is far more important to provide $250 in emergency relief to senior citizens and disabled veterans than it is to provide an average tax break of over $100,000 a year to taxpayers earning more than $1 million a year.

The emergency benefit would go to 50 million seniors and people with disabilities.

The letter notes that when Congress returns to action after the November elections, it also will debate an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy and

whether or not we should be providing $700 billion in tax breaks over the next 10 years to the top 2 percent of income earners.  We should note that the estimated $13 billion cost of emergency relief this year to our seniors is only a fraction of the $70 billion in average annual tax breaks over the next decade that would go to the wealthiest two percent of Americans if all of these tax breaks are extended.

The formula used to calculate cost of living adjustments, say the senators, is out-dated and does not accurately take into account the budgets of senior citizens who spend a disproportionate amount of their income on health care and prescription drugs. Also, more than two-thirds of older Americans depend on Social Security as their primary source of income.

In March, Republicans blocked an amendment for a $250 supplemental payment for Social Security recipients.

The letter was circulated by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). In addition to Reid, lawmakers signing the letter are Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) .

To read the entire letter, click here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on October 20, 2010 (boomark / email).