What's Next For Bernie Sanders? Senator Tackles Future Of Social Security With New Bill

With Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed Thursday a perhaps futile attempt to make wealthier Americans pay more into Social Security in order to keep the decades-old program solvent, according to media reports.

The former Democratic presidential candidate, along with Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), explained the plan that would increase benefits for senior citizens by raising taxes on Americans who earn more than $250,000, The Hill reported.

"Anyone who tells you Social Security is going broke is lying,” Sanders said. “We can increase Social Security benefits for millions of Americans and extend the life of Social Security if we have the political will to tell the wealthiest Americans to pay the same rate as everyone else.”

American workers were contributing 6.2 percent of their annual income to Social Security, but that’s capped at the first $127,000. Sanders' plan also called for income like capital gains and dividends to be taxed in order to keep the program solvent until 2078.

But Sanders, and specifically proponents and current beneficiaries of Social Security, were facing an uphill battle with the Congress. In December, House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Sam Johnson (R-Texas) introduced the Social Security Reform Act of 2016, which would keep the program solvent for 75 years but would do so by cutting back benefits by 122 percent, CBS News reported.

That legislation would directly result in a $2 trillion cut in revenue for the program from a tax cut to wealthier retirees and a nearly $14 trillion reduction in benefits.

Roughly two weeks before President Donald Trump was inaugurated, Sanders took to the Senate floor to urge the then-president-elect to stick to his statement about not cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs that seniors rely on.

"Millions of people voted for him on the belief that he would keep his word," Sanders said on Jan. 4. "If he was sincere, then I would hope that tomorrow or maybe today he could send out a tweet and tell his Republican colleagues to stop wasting their time and all of our time. And for Mr. Trump to tell the American people that he will veto any proposal that cuts Medicare, that cuts Medicaid or that cuts Social Security."