Whitehouse Calls for Passage of Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act Following CBO Report Warning

Washington, DC– U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) today called for passage of his Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its projections showing that Medicare’s main trust fund will be depleted 12 years earlier than expected in 2040, and Social Security’s main trust fund will be exhausted one year earlier than anticipated in 2032.
“Unless billionaires start paying their fair share into the system, Medicare and Social Security will have to start cutting benefits earlier than expected,”said Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Finance Committee.“This is a shameful outcome of President Trump and MAGA Republicans’ Big, Beautiful-for-Billionaires law, which rewarded their wealthy donors with generous tax breaks on the backs of retirees.  Without raising taxes a single penny on those making less than $400,000, and with no injustice to the mega-rich, we can fulfill the promise of a dignified retirement for all Americans.”
TheMedicare and Social Security Fair Share Act,introducedby Whitehouse and Congressman Brendan F. Boyle (D-PA-02), would require taxpayers earning more than $400,000 to contribute a fairer share to Social Security and Medicare.  The Social Security and Medicare actuaries eachfoundthat the legislation would extend the solvency of both programs by at least75 years– the full actuarial window.
Medicare and Social Security are twin pillars of economic fairness and retirement security, providing lifelines to older Americans and their children, and disabled workers.  In 2024, Social Security alone lifted22 millionAmericans out of poverty, and nearly half of seniors live in households that receive at least50 percentof their family income from Social Security benefits that they have earned after a lifetime of work.  Medicare protects its nearly70 millionbeneficiaries from potentially catastrophic health care costs.