In a somewhat unusual alliance, Sen. Bernie Sanders says he agrees with rapper Cardi B that the U.S. Social Security system needs to be revamped and strengthened.
The Vermont independent, who self-describes as a “democratic socialist,” tweeted his support of a statement made by the chart-topping musician.
“Cardi B is right,” Sanders tweeted. “If we are really going to make America great we need to strengthen Social Security so that seniors are able to retire with the dignity they deserve.”
The rapper made her own observation in a GQ interview, during which she claimed the president who truly made America great was Franklin D. Roosevelt. She reasoned this on his establishment of the Social Security system.
“He’s the real ‘Make America Great Again,’ because if it wasn’t for him, old people wouldn’t even get Social Security,” she told GQ.
In a February 2011 interview, Jack Lew, former President Barack Obama’s then-budget director, claimed Social Security was funded for the following 26 years with a $2.6 trillion trust fund.
"Social Security benefits are entirely self-financing,” Lew told USA Today. “They are paid for with payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers throughout their careers. These taxes are placed in a trust fund dedicated to paying benefits owed to current and future beneficiaries.”
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer later called Lew out on this assertion in an article for The Washington Post.
“This [Lew’s] claim is a breathtaking fraud. The pretense is that a flush trust fund will pay retirees for the next 26 years. Lovely, except for one thing: The Social Security trust fund is a fiction. … In other words, the Social Security trust fund contains — nothing.”
Krauthammer said that in exchange for the FICA tax taken out of everyone’s paycheck, “the Treasury sends the Social Security Administration a piece of paper that says: IOU.”
In early 2017, Sanders introduced legislation that he believed would resolve any problem the Social Security system has. He suggested high income earners pay a greater percentage into the fund.
Twitter users reacted to the strange association.
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