How would Biden’s budget proposal for 2025 affect Social Security?
The Biden administration has released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2025. The proposal aims to protect and strengthen Social Security.
President Joe Biden has released the proposed budget for fiscal year 2025, and it contains provisions to protect Social Security benefits and strengthen the program.
The proposal also includes imposing higher taxes on the wealthy as a way to protect these benefits, and so it is likely to face a tough road in Congress, where majority of the representatives are millionaires.
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How would Biden’s budget proposal for 2025 affect Social Security?
The proposed budget for the coming year states that the president opposes any proposal to cut Social Security benefits, as well as any attempts to privatize the program.
According to the proposal, protecting Social Security involves taxing the richest Americans to help improve the program’s solvency. At the moment, lower income and middle-class Americans pay taxes on all of their earnings, while richer ones do not.
The measure also puts forth a $1.3 billion increase to the Social Security Administration’s budget, resulting in a 9% hike for the SSA’s funding from the 2023 level. The increased amount will be used to invest in staff, information technology, and other improvements at the agency.
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The money is designed to help certain sectors of society access the benefits they have earned. The bigger allocation aims to improve customer service at the SSA’s field offices and tele-service centers for retirees as well as individuals with disabilities.
The budget supports Medicare as well, indefinitely extending the life of the Medicare Hospital Insurance trust fund, also known as Part A of Medicare. This move also involves increasing the fund by requiring wealthy people to pay their fair share.
According to the White House, “current law lets certain wealthy business owners avoid Medicare taxes on some of the profits they get from passthrough businesses.” The budget proposal closes this loophole.