Bernie Sanders Calls for Expansion of Social Security Benefits

By Dan Roberts, Guardian UK

10 July 15

Democratic presidential hopeful renews calls for expansion of benefits and warns that Republicans will try to undermine Medicare and pensions

ernie Sanders cemented his appeal to older voters on Thursday with renewed calls for an expansion of social security and protection of Medicare from alleged assaults by Republicans.

Bolstering the two welfare programmes – providing pensions, disability and health insurance to millions of Americans – has long been at the heart of his pitch for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.

But Sanders argued that the political debate was moving in his direction, particularly since many Democrats have distanced themselves from proposals floated by the White House two years ago that would have trimmed social security costs.

And he warned that Republican donors such as the Koch brothers were still seeking ways to undermine social security.

“The momentum is with us and not with them,” said the Vermont senator to chants of “Bernie, Bernie” at the Alliance for Retired Americans annual legislative conference in Washington.

“A few years ago if people talked about expanding social security, people would say you are nuts; we’ve got to cut social security. But because of the work done by ARA and trade unions and guess what: there was a poll two weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal and 61 to 20% of people said they wanted to expand social security.”

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner for 2016, has also been emphatic about the need to protect the programme, but Sanders advocates paying for an expansion by eliminating the contributions ceiling for higher wage-earners.

“We are going to scrap the cap,” he told the ARA conference. “And very wealthy people are going to have to start paying their fair share. When we do that, not only do we extend the life of social security but we expand benefits too.”

Though some analysts have questioned whether this uncompromising approach will limit Sanders’ recent surge in the polls when it comes to appealing to less liberal Democrat voters, the Vermont senator argues his views are more mainstream than pundits appreciate.

“The views that we hold are the views of the overwhelming majority of the American people,” he told the ARA conference.

“Philosophers have told us that the great nations are judged not by how many millionaires and billionaires they have; great nations are judged by how they treat the most vulnerable in their country,” he added.

“The word is getting out that the country belongs to all of us and not just a handful of billionaires.”