Trump’s pick for Vice President, U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) will arrive on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
As Social Security faces bankruptcy, where do the vice presidential candidates stand on the program?
The clock is ticking to Social Security Repairfund of.
The next White House administration could play a key role in shaping the future of the program.
The combined Social Security trust fund is expected to extended to 2035By that time, 83% of benefits will have been paid, the program’s trustees expected earlier this year. However, the Social Security fund relied on to pay pension benefits will be due end soonerin 2033, when 79% of those subsidies will be paid.
Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have promised not to touch welfare, although Trump has hinted at cutting benefits in a CNBC Interview March.
November races include oldest presidential candidateBiden, 81, is the oldest sitting US president, while Trump, 77, is among the 20 oldest world leaders.
More from Personal Finance:
Here’s a breakdown of inflation for June 2024 — in one chart
Generation Z is willing to buy homes that need fixing up. Some regret the decision.
Lower inflation points to smaller 2025 Social Security COLA
Trump’s pick for vice president — Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio — added another perspective on the issue.
Vance, 39, or Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, could one day occupy the Oval Office. Historically, one-third of past US presidents have served as vice president.
Some experts have expressed doubts about what Vance’s vice presidency would mean for Social Security and Medicare.
“One day, former President Trump will say, ‘We need to cut these programs,’” said Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
“And then the next day, he’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s not what I was saying,’ and Vance is just like that,” Richtman said.
In recent years, Vance has said he does not support cutting Social Security or Medicare, according to press interviews sent by his Senate team. dated 2022.
“In 2019, we spent about $4.4 trillion federally…. last year, we expected to collect about $4.4 trillion in taxes,” Vance said. Fox Business in January“So the idea that you need to intervene in Social Security and Medicare to get to a healthy long-term fiscal picture … I don’t think that’s right.”
However, the National Committee pointed out that it was a complete change from his previous comments.
The advocacy group has support Biden for the 2024 race, only the second time they have done so. Asked whether Trump could have picked a better running mate who supported Social Security, Richtman said most Republicans would.
‘Neither candidate really has a plan’
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris looks on during a campaign event at Girard College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., May 29, 2024.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
The National Committee has endorsed the Democratic plan for Social Security, which calls for additional taxes on wealthy individuals earning over $400,000.
As part of the White House administration, Harris has supported those plans. As a senator from California, she also backed a similar reform plan called Social Security Expansion ActIt is currently backed by leaders including Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
“Chairperson [Joe Biden] and I will protect Social Security. Donald Trump will not,” Harris posted on X in June. “The contrast is very clear.”
Biden has emphasized protecting Social Security in State of the Union Address And budget proposal.
While Democrats have called for requiring the wealthy to pay more into the program while expanding benefits, Republicans have opposed raising taxes.
Ultimately, Social Security reform may require a combination of changes.
Vance, in a Interview with The New York Times announced in June, proposing to encourage “seven million working-age men not in the workforce” to go to work.
“You move those millions of men from not working to working; you raise wages across the board; you raise tariffs; and I think you buy yourself a lot more than the nine or 10 years that insurance mathematicians say we have,” Vance told the Times.
Putting more people back to work would help Social Security, but it would be difficult to do, said Andrew Biggs, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who worked on Social Security reform in the White House under President George W. Bush.
Furthermore, Biggs said Vance overestimated how much change could help fix the program.
“There is a funding gap that is much larger than Social Security faced in 1983,” Biggs said. “And neither candidate really has a plan to address it.”
The Democratic Party disagrees.
“There is only one candidate in this race who can protect the welfare states that millions of Americans have paid into over their lifetimes — and that is Joe Biden,” said Joe Costello, a spokesman for Biden-Harris 2024.
By 2029, however, Biggs predicts the nation will continue to face the same dilemma over Social Security. And the president who takes office then—whether it’s Vance, Harris, or someone else—will likely be forced to address it.
