Posted on 09/20/2024 3:47:30 AM PDT by george76
A group of House members from both parties succeeded Thursday in deploying a rarely executed method to bypass GOP leadership and force a vote on a bill to expand access to Social Security benefits.
Why it matters: It's the second time this year that a bipartisan group of lawmakers has sidestepped House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) with the tool, called a discharge petition.
In May, a discharge petition led by Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) attained the necessary 218 signatures to force a House vote on legislation providing tax relief to victims of natural disasters.
The last time a discharge petition succeeded before this year was in 2015 — nearly a decade ago.
State of play: The discharge petition, led by Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Garret Graves (R-La.), would force a vote on the Social Security Fairness Act.
The relatively non-controversial bill would close loopholes that deny Social Security payments to retirees who receive certain government pensions or other types of retirement benefits.
It hit 218 signatures Thursday afternoon after Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.) signed on.
In total, 47 Republicans and 171 Democrats backed it.
What they're saying: "It represents in this Congress the fact that, below the surface, there's always been this bipartisan majority ... that will push when things aren't getting done," said Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio).
Landsman, one of the petition's organizers, added that Republicans should "appreciate the fact that this is one of hundreds of bipartisan bills that would pass immediately" if it made it to the floor via this method.
Spanberger previously told Axios that she and Graves launched the discharge petition because the bill kept falling through the legislative cracks and being overlooked by leadership.
What's next: After seven legislative days, Graves and Spanberger will be able to request that Johnson schedule a floor vote.
Johnson may end up simply allowing the vote.
If he doesn't it will go ahead in another two legislative days— with or without his assent.
"We will be dogged in making sure the Social Security Fairness Act passes in the U.S. House, passes in the U.S. Senate, and finally gets signed into law. We must get it done," Graves and Spanberger said
Do we have they have enough of our money?
Never enough.
The last official act of any government is to loot the treasury.. ~George Washington
I had tax clients who would have 5 or more pensions.
Retired military, retired Federal government, retired defense industry, retired state government, and Social Security. It was really beneficial under the old defined benefit plans, especially for Federal employees as they changed drastically by integrating Social Security and thrift plans while decreasing the defined benefit portion.
There is a conflict of interest as congressman benefit from the double or triple dipping.
The greatest benefits were due to the state and federal pension plans counting military service as years employed.
Not one Cent for any ILLEGAL and that will help greatly. Also there should be no cap on SS contributions, everybody should pay the same percentage all the way to the very top.
“...congressman benefit from the double or triple dipping...”
You hit the nail on the head. They try to make it sound like it’s for the poor retirees but it’s actually about more benefits for THEMSELVES!
I so much despise these filthy money grubbing bastards voting themselves the treasury. /spit
Assume is bill is just more looting and not to fix any actual problem. Certain government and other pensions - I would guess that means all those would did not pay into SS like teacher unions and government types and simply want to loot the system for personal gain.
in deploying a rarely executed method to bypass GOP leadership
GOP Leadership is an oxymoron.
Glad I am 80 and not 30!
A shared sentiment.
No.. it is people who did that work a pension toe job Like teacher, cop or whatever say 25 years, then got another job… and also paid into SS for all the required quarters, and still get a pittance of their otherwise earned SS.
They should get the SS they earned which will already be less because their highest SS years are less.
American retirees should get at pay as much protection as Ukrainian retirees and officials… we pay their pensions.
I need to know more before I hate this provision.
If these people paid into the Social Security Slush Fund, fairness dictates they collect SS in accordance with the amount they paid in. Only count the income that was subject to FICA.
If they were exempt from FICA, tough beans. I thought Congress was exempt.
EC
There is a minimum benefit a person gets no matter their benefit computation, as long as they meet the years of service.
I just had a disabled widow in her 50’s come to me, with no income. She and her husband had a small farm and hadn’t filed tax returns for many years. Thus she had no earnings to qualify her for Social Security Disability benefits.
There is an alternate farm method for computing self employment taxes on the back of the IRS Form SE when farmers have losses. I did five years back tax returns with no taxable income, claimed the alternate farm SE method, paid the SE Tax, and she qualified for Social Security Disability benefits and Medicare. (Medicare is after 2 years on disability, but they ho 6 months retroactive in computing benefits)
It was not a scam. She truly was disabled and suicidal as she was feeling hopeless after the loss of her husband.
Social Security Trust Fund is only $3 trillion. Current benefit payouts exceed SS taxes collected, thus it is running a deficit and digging into reserves.
It’s worse than that. The entire SS Trust Fund is invested in Government debt and spent. There are zero reserves. The interest on the SS Trust fund is NET from total interest paid when the total interest on the National Debt is disclosed to the public.
Current interest is 54% of total General Fund Revenues and was fast approaching 100%. This is also why the Feds just cut interest rates.
D+45.
Write it down. You heard it here first.
“this bipartisan majority“ does it enact any right wing agenda at any point? Adding more takers to a “fund” that doesn’t exist and would be bankrupt if it did. Sounds like a plan.
Milquetoast Mike gets trampled again.
Yeah because the government doesn’t have enough money...
Are you sure you’re in the right forum?
I doubt that this would have happen if he did not want it to happen only without his being responsible.
There is a reason that this procedure is rare, the Speaker of the House has ways to punish their members if they get to far off the reservation.
Mike knows exactly what he’s doing.
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