Ro Khanna on Social Security

Protect the retirement age; apply COLA increases

• Protect the retirement age.
• Support increasing benefits for seniors to keep up with the high cost of living.
• Hold healthcare providers and insurers accountable for cutting costs.
• Make sure that seniors get every penny of the benefits that they worked for, and oppose efforts to slash Medicare and Social Security.

Scrap the cap: same rate for earnings over $250K

While I commend President Obama's courage in addressing the need to ensure Social Security's solvency in the long-term, I respectfully disagree with his proposal to move the system toward the so-called "chained CPI." That change would reduce benefits for current recipients, which I strongly oppose.

I propose eliminating the current payroll tax cap for incomes above $250,000 a year, asking the wealthiest among us to pay a bit more to ensure the long-term solvency of the program. Those earning between $117,000 and $250,000 would be exempt from any payroll tax increase, so that middle class families in the Bay Area are not subject to a harmful tax increase.

Opposes personal retirement accounts, rated by Faith2Action.

Faith2Action.org is "the nation's largest network of pro-family groups." They provide election resources for each state, including Voter Guides and Congressional Scorecards excerpted here. The F2A survey summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: 'Social Security: Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts?'

Opposes personal retirement accounts, according to PVS rating.

Project VoteSmart infers summary responses from campaign statements and news reports The PVS survey summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: 'Social Security: Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts?'

Opposes diverting some FICA into personal accounts.

The Project Vote Smart Voter Guide inferred how candidates would respond to the question, 'Social Security: Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts?' Project Vote Smart notes, "in response to the increasing unwillingness of candidates to answer issue questions, Project Vote Smart has researched Congressional candidates' public records to determine candidates' likely responses on certain key issues. These issue positions, from the year 2016, are provided [for candidates who] refused to provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2016 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests. Historically, candidates have failed to complete our test due to the advice they receive from their parties and advisors and out of fear of negative attack ads."