Three senior groups backed President Biden’s reelection bid Wednesday based on his pledge to protect Social Security, but so far he has only offered vague promises to protect the program as insolvency looms.
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, which bucked its 38-year tradition of avoiding endorsements to back Mr. Biden in 2020, has done so again this election. Social Security Works PAC and the bipartisan National United Committee to Protect Pensions also said they are endorsing Mr. Biden.
All three organizations cited Mr. Biden’s commitment to protect the Social Security trust fund reserves from being depleted. The Treasury Department said last month that the trust funds — which cover old age and disability recipients — will be unable to pay full benefits in 2035. If that happens, Social Security would only be able to pay 83% of benefits.
Last year, the Treasury Department pegged the go-back date for the trust funds at 2034, estimating that it would only be able to pay 71% of promised benefits.
Neither Mr. Biden nor his opponent, GOP presumptive nominee former President Donald Trump, have issued a formal plan to keep Social Security solvent beyond the next decade.
Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said it’s not Mr. Biden’s job to come up with a plan to save Social Security. He noted that President Reagan’s 1983 law reforming the entitlement was developed in Congress.
“It traditionally is not the president who presents a detailed Social Security plan,” he said. “No president in the past 50 years has laid out a detailed plan for Social Security. It is Congress’ responsibility and Congress has failed to act.”
Mr. Richtman pointed to a few lawmakers, including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island Democrat, and Rep. John B. Larson, Connecticut Democrat, for proposing Social Security reforms.
In 2016, Mr. Richtman was appointed to the platform committee for the Democratic National Committee. He is a former staff director of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.
Mr. Biden’s budget blueprint released early this month did not include a detailed plan for fixing Social Security. Instead, it simply said he would work with Congress “in a way that ensures no benefit cuts.”
The budget blueprint included a detailed plan to protect Medicare, another entitlement program that is equally popular but expensive. The proposal included as much ink on improving Social Security Administration customer service as it did on strengthening the program.
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Mr. Biden vowed to save Social Security by increasing payroll taxes for people with annual incomes higher than $400,000. He mentions the idea in campaign speeches, but with a Republican Congress, it is unlikely the idea will go far.
Mr. Richtman pointed to the president’s 2020 pledge as one of the reasons his group backs Mr. Biden.
“Our endorsement is based on President Biden’s commitment to these core principles and putting the moral authority of the White House behind them,” he said.
Mr. Trump has been similarly vague with his promise to fix Social Security. He has pushed the idea of cutting spending on the program.
“There is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting, and in terms of also the theft and bad management of entitlements,” he said on CNBC without specifying where he would cut.
Democrats said Mr. Trump was talking about cutting the Social Security program. Mr. Trump sought to clarify his comments in an interview with Breitbart.
“I will never do anything to jeopardize or hurt Social Security and Medicare,” he said.
“Trump, who has been rhetorically all over the place on Social Security, said this year he is ’open’ to cutting entitlements, then tried to walk it back. He has called Social Security a Ponzi scheme. And his record as president was not reassuring,” Mr. Richtman said.
The endorsements came one day after the Biden campaign launched a grassroots program to energize voters 65 and older with more than a dozen events, including bingo nights, pickleball tournaments and appearances by senior administration officials.
Older Americans are likely to play a key role in the election, given they vote at higher levels than any other group and account for nearly 10 million voters in key battleground states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.