It’s the end of Social Security as we know it: And Ben Cline feels fine

A report released by the Social Security Administration on Tuesday tells us the Social Security program is on track to be insolvent by the end of 2032, which would trigger cuts in monthly checks of 22 percent.

No comment on any of this from our Sixth District congressman, Ben Cline, who spent his Tuesday asking dumb questions in a committee hearing and voting to give ICE and the Border Patrol $70 billion a year to round up brown people.

“This should be a wake-up call: Congress needs to act. Americans have worked hard and paid into Social Security their entire lives, and they deserve to count on it when they retire. No family should see any cuts to what they’ve earned in Social Security,” AARP CEO Myechia Minter-Jordan said in a statement on the report that was released on Tuesday.

The key issue driving the projection: the One Big Beautiful Bill that Cline voted for last summer permanently lowers tax rates, and what should you expect when you lower tax rates – to continue the money going out, you need money coming in.

Cline’s solution there: raising the retirement age from 67 to 69, which, OK, sure.

Democrats have, for years, pushed to eliminate the income cap on the payroll tax.

As it is now, people who make more than $184,500 per year don’t pay FICA taxes on any amount above that – and they don’t pay taxes on income from interest, dividends, rents, and capital gains.

This puts the burden for funding Social Security on the middle class.

“The Social Security Trust Fund is under strain because Congress has failed to update the program for the economy we actually have,” said Elizabeth Wilkins, CEO of the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank.

“Too much income now flows to the top, where it escapes Social Security taxation,” Wilkins said.

For a sense of the scale here, Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at The New School for Social Research, estimates that if Elon Musk paid FICA tax on all of his annual income all year, he alone would fund average benefits for 20 million of the 70 million Americans who currently receive benefits.

Raising the retirement age to 69, as Cline wants us to do, just kicks the can down the road – but of course, it also protects billionaires like Elon Musk, which is the important thing there for the Ben Clines of the world.

This, by the way, is what you voted for – the AP VoteCast exit poll had Donald Trump getting a five-point majority among the 50+ population in the 2024 presidential election, and among voters in the 50-64 age group, it was a 13-point margin for Trump.

There are consequences, is the message here.

“Social Security is a lifeline for nearly one-in-five Virginians – 1,685,819. It is earned through a lifetime of hard work.  It’s not a bonus or a handout,” AARP Virginia Director Jim Dau said in a statement.

The Social Security Administration has data on the number of enrollees by congressional district – for the Sixth District, it’s 175,815.

“For many Virginians, Social Security is an essential part of their retirement financial security plan. These payments help cover basic needs like housing, groceries, utilities, and health care. In fact, a recent AARP survey found that 65 percent of Americans 50-plus say they couldn’t go six months without borrowing or selling something if Social Security were eliminated,” Dau said.

“The new Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report that was just released tells us what we already know: Congress must act to protect and strengthen Social Security,” Dau said.

Note to 50+ voters: Congress isn’t going to act if you keep sending the same people back to do the same things.