Ahead of the third Democratic debate on Thursday, presidential candidate and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has released details of her latest plan to boost Social Security, according to CNN.
In a campaign that has been defined by making plans, Warren has a new one for Social Security: hiking taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans in order to increase Social Security benefits for all Americans by $200 per month.
According to an independent analysis of the plan by Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, implementing these changes would lift approximately 4.9 million senior citizens from poverty, which would cut the senior poverty rate by 68%.
The analysis also found this plan would lead to an increase of long-term economic growth, and reduce the deficit by over $1 trillion over the next 10 years.
“We need to get our priorities straight,” says Warren, in a Medium post where she introduced her plan on Thursday. “We should be increasing Social Security benefits and asking the richest Americans to contribute their fair share to the program.”
The $200 boost would increase the average monthly benefits from $1,395 per month to $1,595, according to CNN. To do this, a payroll tax of 14.8% would be implemented for those who earn $250,000 or more, which, says Warren, would affect 2% of the the nation’s earners. There would also be a 14.8% tax on investment income of individuals who earn over $250,000.
In addition to the $200 benefits boost, Warren’s plan also details changes to the structure of the program that would assist groups she claims have been treated unfairly by Social Security in the past, including the disabled and family caregivers, according to a report from Vox.
“I’ve dedicated most of my career to studying what’s happening to working families in America,” says Warren in her post on Medium. “One thing is clear: it’s getting harder to save enough for a decent retirement.”
According to Warren, a majority of seniors in the U.S. rely on Social Security for at least half of their retirement income. She says that her proposal will improve retirement prospects for current and future retirees alike.