Social Security’s looming insolvency sparks alarm in Congress

Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) call for Republicans to act on Social Security reform if they keep control of Congress in 2027 is getting pushback from Senate Republicans who warn it’s a bad political message heading into November.

Yet, a trustees’ report that the popular retirement program will become insolvent sooner than expected has lit a fire under lawmakers in both parties to call for reforms such as raising the cap on payroll taxes, “means testing” beneficiaries, raising the retirement age, and creating personal accounts to invest in the stock markets.

The Social Security trustees’ report warned that beneficiaries would see their monthly checks cut by 22 percent in 2032.

Fiscal conservatives are applauding Johnson’s bold talk.

“I’m sending a letter to our leadership. … I’m sending them an official letter saying we should set up a bicameral, bipartisan [committee] — equal number of Republicans, equal number of Democrats — and the sole goal is to discuss how to make Social Security and Medicare solvent,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he’s going to hold the Speaker to his promise to address Social Security’s future fiscal trajectory if Republicans keep control of Congress.

“We were promised … if we retain the majority, we’re definitely going to tackle this. I’ll try and hold them to this,” he said.

The Wisconsin Republican said he wants to “plus up” Social Security benefits by slashing federal spending more generally to create more fiscal space to fund Social Security without adding to the deficit.

But some Republicans are wary of Johnson’s call for action because they remember the brutal political lesson from 20 years ago when former President George W. Bush tried to reform Social Security without Democratic buy-in and it blew up in Republicans’ faces.

“That sounds like wealthy people who want to have all of their tax breaks and loopholes and their carried interest deductions and so forth but they want working people who paid into all of those programs for years to take less,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said when asked about the Speaker’s statements about the need to tackle big mandatory spending programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Hawley says he gets nervous when policymakers talk about the need to “address” or “reform” Social Security.

“Addressed? Reformed? That’s usually code for ‘cut.’ I’m not in favor of that,” he said.

The Speaker warned in a radio interview that Congress needs to tackle the ballooning cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which account for three-quarters of federal spending.

“The reason we’re in trouble is because over 74 percent of federal spending is on autopilot — mandatory spending, that is your entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and things like Social Security — they have to be adjusted and fixed,” Johnson said on the “Moon Griffon Show.”

“We have a plan to do that next year, and it’s critical, because we’re at $40 trillion-plus in debt. At some point you get into a hole so deep you can’t climb out of it, so desperate times call for desperate measures,” he warned.

Some Senate Republicans think that kind of talk before a midterm election when GOP candidates are facing big headwinds in November is politically tone deaf.

Asked about Johnson’s comments that Social Security needs to be addressed, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) merely said the Speaker is “entitled to his opinion.”

“I think Mike is my friend, and he’s entitled to his opinion,” Kennedy said tersely.

A Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment candidly on Senate GOP reaction to proposals to raise the Social Security retirement age, trim benefits or raise payroll taxes, said colleagues don’t want to “walk the plank” by embracing calls for reform.

The senator cited the huge political blowback to the Bush administration in 2005 when it attempted to partially privatize Social Security.