Senators split over tax fixes as Social Security insolvency looms

The Senate Finance Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy met June 24, to weigh the future of Social Security. Members and witnesses agreed on the urgency of a looming shortfall but were divided over how to close it.

Without congressional action, the program’s primary trust fund is projected to run dry in 2032, triggering an automatic 22% benefit cut for every beneficiary.

Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) used his opening statement to argue that revenue alone cannot fix the program, warning that the gap “cannot realistically be plugged simply through tax hikes on the wealthy” — the Democrats’ favored solution, nor by only curbing waste, fraud, and abuse — the Republican one.

To dig deeper, visit the original article on the Thomson Reuters blog.