[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 123 (Monday, July 29, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S5538]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Social Security

  Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, Social Security is a sacred trust 
between the American people and our government. It is a promise to 
workers, many of whom have no other savings besides Social Security. A 
promise, almost by definition, does not change. It remains consistent 
despite new challenges. It is just a question of whether society has 
the courage to honor that commitment.
  Now Social Security as we know it is headed for a fiscal cliff in 9 
years. If it hits that cliff, if we do nothing and we just attempt to 
borrow our way out of it, there will be an estimated $615 trillion in 
accumulated debt over the next 75 years--again, if we just attempt to 
borrow our way out of it. If we don't borrow our way out of it, there 
is a 20- to 24-percent cut in benefits to Social Security recipients, 
both current and future. This is the rock and the hard place: either 
the 20-percent or so cut or, with borrowing costs, a $615 trillion 
addition to our Nation's deficit.
  I have spoken before on Social Security. Today, I want to focus on 
two unfair provisions that we would eliminate if we actually have a 
chance to address Social Security, the larger picture. The two I will 
speak of are the windfall elimination provision and the government 
pension offset, also known as WEP and GPO. These penalize families 
across the country who worked in a State or a local public service job 
for part of their career and had a pension separate from Social 
Security.
  How did we get here? WEP and GPO were introduced by President Clinton 
and Speaker Gingrich decades ago to address perceived inequalities in 
the Social Security system, but it had the effect actually of creating 
inequalities. When someone, say, worked for the State of Louisiana or 
the State of California, and then they didn't pay into the Social 
Security system, but they left that job after 20 years and went into 
the private sector, and they worked for 20 years paying into the Social 
Security system, getting their quotas, here, they were unfairly 
penalized, overly penalized for the years in which they did not 
contribute into Social Security.
  What the windfall elimination provision does is it reduces the Social 
Security benefit of individuals who also receive a pension from non-
Social-Security-covered employment--for example, State or local 
government. This has resulted in thousands of individuals who have paid 
into Social Security during their career but nonetheless received an 
overly reduced Social Security benefit when they retired.
  This is WEP. Now let's talk about the government pension offset. The 
GPO reduces Social Security spousal or survivor benefits for 
individuals who also receive a government pension. This provision can 
reduce or even eliminate Social Security benefits that a spouse or a 
widow might have expected and relied upon.
  Louisiana has more first responders per capita than any other State 
in the Nation and tens of thousands of teachers, meaning that our State 
is disproportionately affected by WEP and GPO.
  A few years ago, I met a retired Louisiana schoolteacher impacted by 
GPO--again, government pension offset. She had been a teacher. Her 
husband had paid into Social Security. She should have gotten the 
spousal benefit from Social Security, but it was remarkably reduced. 
She cried in my office. She was unable to understand why she was 
getting less in Social Security spousal benefits than if she had never 
worked at all. Think about that. If she had never taught, she would 
have gotten more benefits than the fact that she did teach and was 
subject to this government pension offset. She felt that she was 
punished for being a teacher, educating generations of Louisiana 
children. Indeed, she was, and she is.
  There is no excuse to treat public servants this way. WEP and GPO 
should never have become laws, but we have an opportunity to fix them.
  With President Biden stepping aside in the Presidential race, he has 
the opportunity to show Presidential leadership--the Presidential 
leadership he failed to demonstrate until now--on the issue of Social 
Security. If he is going to serve as President for several more months, 
why not support a bipartisan plan to save Social Security, to hold true 
to the promise to our seniors, as well as to make the system fair, with 
one of his last acts in office. The American people deserve a President 
willing to work for them. Here is an opportunity.