Seniors and Veterans Emergency Benefits Act
Floor Speech
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Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, the clock is ticking. Exactly 1 month from today, on January 1, approximately 70 million seniors, veterans, Americans with disabilities, and others who depend on Social Security and other benefits will get their first check of the new year. For those 70 million Americans--that is 1 in 5 Americans--January 1 is supposed to be a day of relief. This is the day when the Federal Government boosts their checks just a little bit to help with the rising costs of housing, food, and medical care. But unless Congress does something right now, for just the third time since 1975, seniors and veterans won't be receiving any cost-of-living increase on January 1--not one penny more.
Look at who gets left out in the cold. Two-thirds of seniors depend on Social Security for the majority of their income. For 15 million Americans, Social Security is all that stands between them and poverty, but not one of these Americans will see an extra penny next year, and millions of other Americans whose benefits are pegged to Social Security--millions who receive veterans' benefits, disability benefits, and other monthly payments--won't see an extra penny either.
Times are tough, but not for everyone. Last year, the CEOs at the biggest 350 American companies received, on average, a 3.9-percent pay increase. How much money is that? Since the average CEO at one of those top 350 companies made a cool $16.3 million, a 3.9-percent raise landed them an additional half million bucks each. Everything is just great for America's top CEOs, who got huge raises, while 70 million seniors, veterans, and others who worked hard will be left with nothing. Why? It is not an accident. It is not inevitable. It is the result of deliberate policies made right here in Congress.
Social Security is supposed to be indexed to inflation so that when prices go up, benefits go up. But Congress's formula looks at the spending patterns of only about a quarter of the country, and the formula isn't geared to what older Americans actually spend their money on. In fact, official estimates show that the cost of core goods and services has increased, but seniors won't be getting a raise. Costs go forward while Social Security falls behind all because of the way that Congress says to calculate COLAs.
Skyrocketing CEO pay is also, in part, the result of policies set right here in Congress. Taxpayers subsidize CEOs' huge pay packages through billions of dollars in tax giveaways, including a crazy loophole that allows corporations to write off gigantic bonuses as business expenses. Sure, companies should make their own decisions on how much to pay their executives, but because of laws Congress has passed, American taxpayers are forced to subsidize these multimillion-dollar pay packages.
These two decisions--how to calculate Social Security raises and whether to give tax breaks for multimillion-dollar CEO bonuses--are made right here in Congress, and right now Senators bow and scrape for highly paid CEOs while they turn their backs on retirees and vets. We are here because it is time for Congress to make different choices.
Representative Tammy Duckworth and I have introduced the Seniors And Veterans Emergency Benefits Act, or the SAVE Benefits Act, to give retirees, veterans, and Americans with disabilities a one-time payment of about $581.
That is the equivalent of a 3.9-percent increase over the average Social Security benefit--the same percentage raise CEOs received just last year.
Where would the money come from? Well, we can pay for it by closing the tax loophole for CEO bonuses that exceed $1 million. In fact, according to the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration, closing just this one loophole will create enough revenue to give a $581 raise to seniors and vets and still have billions of dollars left over to help boost the Social Security trust fund for the future.
The SAVE Benefits Act would give seniors, vets, and the disabled an extra $581 a year. That $581 a year may not mean much to a CEO, but that money will cover almost 3 months of groceries for seniors or a year's worth of out-of-pocket costs on prescription drugs for someone on Medicare. For seniors and vets, that $581 means a lot.
Already, 21 Democratic Senators have signed on as cosponsors. Dozens of organizations--Social Security Works, the AFL-CIO, MoveOn.org, the National Organization For Women, VoteVets, the National Council of La Raza, and I could go on and on with this list--have already endorsed the bill. Across the country, more than 400,000 people have signed petitions urging Congress to pass the SAVE Benefits Act.
This is about money, but it is also about values. For too long, we have listened to a handful of the rich and powerful insist that we cut taxes for those at the top and leave everyone else behind. And now, across this country, people are saying: Enough. Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize millionaire CEOs while seniors and vets have to fight for whatever scraps are left behind.
The clock is ticking. It is time for Congress to step up. The money is there--either way. It can go for a payment to 70 million Americans who need it and who have earned it or it can go to CEOs and the wealthiest corporations.
Let's vote on the SAVE Benefits Act. Let's show everyone where we stand--whether we stand up for tax breaks for the country's most highly paid CEOs or whether we work for the seniors and vets who worked their hearts out to build this country.
Senator McConnell, brings this bill to the floor and let us vote.
I yield the floor.
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