Social Security: Where Do Remaining 2024 Presidential Hopefuls Trump, Biden and Haley Stand on Cuts?
Written by
Vance Cariaga
Edited by
Daria Uhlig
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With the field of 2024 presidential candidates dwindling down to a trio of legitimate contenders, voters might finally get more clarity on where the remaining hopefuls stand on issues such as Social Security. For now, there’s still frustration over the lack of policy details from leading candidates President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
The future of Social Security has become a hot topic during the 2024 presidential campaign because of a looming funding shortfall. The program’s Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is expected to run out of money within the next decade, leaving Social Security solely dependent on payroll taxes. Those taxes currently cover only about 77% of benefits.
Older Americans are especially concerned about what will happen to Social Security benefits — and they tend to turn out for elections. During the recent Iowa caucuses, severe winter weather kept overall turnout low. Of those who did turn out, 70% were over the age of 50, CNBC reported. That figure was “unprecedented,” according to Brad Anderson, Iowa state director at the AARP.
As previously reported by GOBankingRates, voters have a general idea about where the candidates stand on Social Security. Biden has proposed a 4-point plan that would mostly impact high earners who can depend on their retirement savings to get by. The plan includes the following:
- Tax earned income above $400,000, leaving wages between $160,200 and $400,000 untaxed. In 2024, any wages above $168,600 are not taxed, up from $160,200 in 2023.
- Change the calculation for determining annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) so they are no longer based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Biden favors basing the COLA on the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E).
- Raise the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) age that determines how much money you’ll receive in Social Security benefits.
- Raise the special minimum benefit for lifetime lower-wage workers to 125% of the federal poverty level for Social Security beneficiaries.
But these and other reforms Biden has proposed haven’t been included in budgets sent to Congress, where they would likely face opposition from most Republicans and even some Democrats.
Trump, who seems a lock to secure the GOP nomination after breezing to wins in the first two primaries, has said he has no plans to touch Social Security if he returns to the White House. Last year the ex-president said that “under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security.”
As Forbes noted in a recent article, the Trump campaign blasted Republican rival Haley for indicating she might raise the Social Security full retirement age for younger workers. What Trump hasn’t done is unveil any concrete policy proposals about how to deal with the looming trust fund shortfall.
Doing nothing will not protect Social Security, according to Howard Gleckman, an author and senior fellow at The Urban Institute, where he is affiliated with the Tax Policy Center and the Program on Retirement Policy.
Instead, doing nothing will “doom beneficiaries, especially low-income seniors who rely on the program to pay all or most of their daily expenses, to deep reductions in their monthly incomes and quality of life,” Gleckman wrote in a column for Forbes.
Haley has at least offered up some suggestions, though her details remain fuzzy. She said she supports keeping Social Security the same for anyone who’s in their 40s, 50s, 60s or older. However, she’d limit benefits for the wealthy and is a proponent of raising the retirement age, but “only for younger people who are just entering the system.” She has not specified which age groups might be impacted.
The question is how much longer Haley will stay in the race after suffering a defeat to Trump in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.
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