In the 27 days until the inauguration of the most corrupt individual ever to ascend to the nation's highest office(again), it's easy to get caught up in the painful headlines about the federal budget, the debt ceiling, woefully inappropriate cabinet and ambassadorship appointments, and general dis-ease over the myriad unknowns confronting us over the next four years.
Good news often gets brushed aside, encouraging the opinion the outgoing Biden administration is just sitting on its hands running out the clock.
Well, here are some recent headlines demonstrating Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are still working for the American people.
First, a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate voted to pass the Social Security Fairness Act on Saturday.
This is a big deal, especially since dismantling Social Security and handing it off to Wall Street has been a consistent republican obsession since the Social Security Administration (SSA) was created in 1935.
With the next administration and Congress licking its chops over the prospect of finally getting its wish, this piece of legislation is particularly timely. First, it will eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). Added to the Social Security Act in 1983, these components reduce or eliminate retirement benefits for more than 2.4 million public service retirees, like police officers, firefighters, teachers, federal, state, and local government employees.
Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Garret Graves (R-LA) reintroduced the bill last year, and it passed the House in November 327-75 after lawmakers applied a discharge petition to force a floor vote without republican leaders' approval. After it passed the Senate this weekend, Spanberger and Graves stated in a press release:
Finally, Congress showed up for the millions of Americans -- police officers, firefighters, teachers, federal employees, and other local and state public servants -- who worked a second job to care for their families or began a second career to afford to live. Congress showed up for the hundreds of thousands of widows and widowers who are denied their spouses' Social Security benefits while grappling with their loss. Virginians, Louisianans, and Americans across the country have for more than four decades implored their representatives in Congress to listen to their stories and protect their retirement security and ability to support their families. Today, a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate voted to correct this glaring injustice. We will not take our foot off the gas until this bill reaches the president's desk and is signed into law to repeal the WEP and GPO.
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO):
The WEP reduces benefits for retired or disabled workers who have fewer than 30 years of significant earnings from employment covered by Social Security if they also receive pensions on the basis of noncovered employment. The GPO reduces the spousal or surviving spousal benefits of people who receive pensions on the basis of noncovered employment.
American Federal of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten explained:
Today, justice was finally done for the millions of American workers who dedicated their lives to serving the public but had their retirements throttled by a punitive and unnecessary loophole.
Everyone knows a teacher, firefighter, law enforcement officer, nurse or public worker who's paid into Social Security year after year, only to have their payments curbed by the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset when they retire. Now, that penalty will be consigned to the dustbin of history, where it belongs.
Once President Biden signs the bill, the changes would apply to all benefits payable after last December.
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