Three Democratic Congresswomen spoke during a presentation of a new report from the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare that called for an across-the-board increase in Social Security payouts as well as increased payouts for widows and gay couples. Reports the Hill:
A coalition of liberal groups is pushing for tax increases to pay for an expansion of Social Security, bucking GOP calls to cut the program in order to shore up its finances.
The groups admitted that most of the 10 changes they are advocating would deepen the funding problems facing Social Security, which will not be able to meet all its financial obligations after 2033.
The most costly of the proposals is an across-the-board benefit increase to make up for what the groups called inadequate cost-of-living increases. That proposal would increase Social Security's shortfall by 28 percent.
According to C-SPAN, Democratic Reps. Gwen Moore, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Donna Edwards spoke in favor of the proposal.
The calls for increased spending come amid new reports that entitlement programs are slipping closer to insolvency. Reports the Los Angeles Times:
The nation's Social Security and Medicare programs are sliding closer to insolvency, the federal government warned in a new report underscoring the fiscal challenges facing the two mammoth retirement programs as baby boomers begin to retire.
Medicare, which will provide health insurance to more than 50 million elderly and disabled Americans this year, is expected to start operating in the red in its largest fund in 2024, according to the annual assessment by the trustees charged with overseeing the programs. That's unchanged from last year.
And the Social Security trust fund, which will provide assistance to more than 45 million people in 2012, will be unable under current trends to fulfill its obligations in 2033, three years earlier than projected last year.