{"id":678708,"date":"2026-11-08T15:44:28","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T15:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/678708\/"},"modified":"2026-11-08T15:44:28","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T15:44:28","slug":"where-incoming-senators-stand-on-social-security-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/678708\/","title":{"rendered":"Where incoming senators stand on Social Security reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democrats rode a blue wave of Senate pickups on Tuesday, flipping seven seats in red states and winning control of the chamber<\/a>, while Republicans will also see some fresh faces. Together, the 17 newcomers from both parties will join the next Congress in taking on one of Washington\u2019s most-dodged problems: how to keep Social Security paying full benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The program\u2019s trust fund is projected to run dry in late 2032<\/a>. After that, payroll tax revenue would cover only about 78% of scheduled benefits\u2014forcing an automatic cut of roughly 22%<\/a> unless Congress acts. <\/p>\n

Senators elected to full terms this week serve until January 2033, so the deadline falls on their watch. And because Social Security can\u2019t be changed through budget reconciliation, a fix will likely need 60 votes and support from both parties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nearly all the newcomers addressed Social Security during their campaigns. As Fortune previously reported<\/a>, the issue isn\u2019t quite the third rail it used to be, but \u201cprotecting\u201d the program can mean very different things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what each incoming senator has actually said they would do.<\/p>\n

Juliana Stratton, D-Illinois \u2014 Stratton said she would eliminate the cap on wages subject to the payroll tax, according to The Times Weekly<\/a>. Social Security payroll taxes now apply<\/a> only to the first $184,500 of a worker\u2019s yearly earnings. Eliminating that cap starting in 2027, without increasing benefits for the additional earnings taxed, would close an estimated 58% of Social Security\u2019s projected 75-year funding shortfall, according to the Social Security Administration\u2019s actuaries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Josh Turek, D-Iowa \u2014 Turek said he would lift <\/a>the $184,500 cap and opposes raising the age for full benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adam Hamilton, D-Kansas \u2014 Hamilton would raise the earnings cap rather than eliminate it<\/a>, arguing that someone earning $1 million shouldn\u2019t pay the same Social Security tax as someone earning $184,500. He didn\u2019t take a firm position on the retirement age.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Andy Barr, R-Kentucky \u2014 Barr opposed changes for people already retired and called for bipartisan reforms for younger generations. He didn\u2019t name specific tax or benefit changes but said reforms should encourage more private and employer-sponsored retirement savings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Troy Jackson, D-Maine \u2014 In a September Bangor Daily News op-ed<\/a>, Jackson called for scrapping the payroll tax cap and increasing benefits, while ruling out privatization and raising the retirement age.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Abdul El-Sayed, D-Michigan \u2014 In his final debate, El-Sayed said<\/a> the payroll tax cap should be removed and that Social Security benefits shouldn\u2019t be taxed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eliminating taxes on benefits without replacing revenue would cost Social Security about $1 trillion over 10 years, plus an additional $700 billion for Medicare, according to a July analysis published by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Peggy Flanagan, D-Minnesota \u2014 Flanagan backs Sen. Bernie Sanders\u2019 Social Security Expansion Act, Bloomberg Government reported<\/a>. The bill would apply payroll taxes to wages above $250,000, eventually eliminate the cap, and raise benefits. Her campaign site also supports<\/a> eliminating taxes on benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kurt Alme, R-Montana \u2014 Alme says savings from cutting waste, fraud, and abuse elsewhere in government should go toward Social Security. In an October debate<\/a>, he pointed to his experience as Montana\u2019s budget director but didn\u2019t propose changes to the cap or the benefit formula.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chris Pappas, D-New Hampshire \u2014 Pappas opposes raising the retirement age, cutting benefits, and privatization. His campaign highlighted<\/a> his cosponsorship of the Social Security Fairness Act, the 2025 law that boosted benefits for public workers with outside pensions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roy Cooper, D-North Carolina \u2014 Cooper made the 2032 deadline a staple of his stump speech. He opposes benefit cuts and says wealthy Americans should contribute more<\/a> to the program but hasn\u2019t specified how.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Annie Andrews, D-South Carolina \u2014 Andrews supports eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits but hasn\u2019t laid out a plan to close the funding gap yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

James Talarico, D-Texas \u2014 Talarico wants to eliminate the payroll tax cap for people earning over $400,000, Texas Public Radio reported<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barry Moore, R-Alabama \u2014 Moore\u2019s Senate campaign website backed cutting taxes on Social Security<\/a> benefits. He was also an original cosponsor of the Senior Citizens Tax Elimination Act<\/a>, introduced in February 2025. The bill would remove Social Security benefits from federal taxable income and transfer general funds to replace the revenue the trust funds would lose.<\/p>\n

Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming \u2014 Asked how to prevent Social Security cuts during an August 2026 primary debate<\/a>, Hageman said growing the economy, creating jobs, and getting more people into the workforce would help shore up the program. Like Moore, Hageman was an original cosponsor of the 2025 bill to end federal income taxes on benefits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democrats rode a blue wave of Senate pickups on Tuesday, flipping seven seats in red states and winning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,14843,176,61,60,174,175,16621,1615,34810,12688],"class_list":["post-678708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-democratic-party","tag-finance","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-republican-party","tag-social-security","tag-u-s-politics","tag-u-s-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}