ICYMI: Cassidy Warns Delaying Social Security Reform Will Only Raise Costs, Highlights Plan to Save It in WSJ

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) penned a letter to the editor in the Wall Street Journal warning that the longer Congress waits to address Social Security’s looming insolvency, the larger the tax increases and benefit cuts will be. Cassidy also highlighted his plan to strengthen Social Security by investing funds into the U.S. economy. This letter comes in response to Joseph C. Sternberg’s column, “The Social Security Trust Fund Deception” . “The longer Congress does nothing, the larger the tax increase workers will face and the deeper the benefit reductions retirees will endure,” wrote Dr. Cassidy. “That’s why Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and I introduced our bipartisan “Big Idea” for Social Security to invest funds into the U.S. economy,” continued Dr. Cassidy . Read the full letter to the editor here or excerpts below: The Cost of Delaying Social Security Reform Joseph C. Sternberg suggests waiting to solve Social Security’s looming insolvency in his column “The Social Security Trust Fund Deception” (Political Economics, June 12). But the longer we delay, the higher the cost will be. The program’s funds are rapidly approaching insolvency. … The longer Congress does nothing, the larger the tax increase workers will face and the deeper the benefit reductions retirees will endure. That’s why Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and I introduced our bipartisan “Big Idea” for Social Security to invest funds into the U.S. economy. The returns would strengthen Social Security’s finances over time, just like pension funds, retirement accounts and state investment funds. … The Social Security problem won’t solve itself. We must act now. Background Cassidy has outlined his plan to rescue Social Security from insolvency by creating a sovereign wealth fund independent of the Social Security Trust Fund. Earlier this month, Cassidy released a statement following the most recent Social Security Trustees’ annual report, which predicts that Social Security will become insolvent by 2032. Cassidy also recently laid out his vision during a U.S. Senate Budget Committee hearing in March, as well as last year at a public forum with the AARP and a keynote address to the National Institute on Retirement Security’s (NIRS) 15 th Annual Retirement Policy Conference on the future of Social Security.  He has written extensively on his proposal in the Washington Post , the Wall Street Journal , State Affairs , and the Washington Examiner . ###