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Dulcinea

(7,599 posts) Sun Dec 22, 2024, 07:40 AM Sunday

Senate approves bill to expand Social Security to millions of Americans

(CBS News) Nearly 3 million Americans will receive full Social Security benefits under legislation passed in the waning hours of the current Congress and now headed to President Biden, who is expected to sign into law.

Senators voted 76-20 for the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate two federal policies that prevent nearly 3 million people, including police officers, firefighters, postal workers, teachers and others with a public pension, from collecting their full Social Security benefits. The legislation has been decades in the making, as the Senate held its first hearings into the policies in 2003.

"The Senate finally corrects a 50-year mistake," proclaimed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, after senators approved the legislation at 12:15 a.m. Saturday.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/senate-approves-bill-expand-social-051900227.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&segment_id&ncid=crm_30541-1501458-20241222-0&bt_user_id=Hn0%2FVQvtuzUhxZEX%2Fw0qyfEZy13GMLbHlSmbj8IqLAAOtAqptjg95iFiuQVyXZxU&bt_ts=1734861709254

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Senate approves bill to expand Social Security to millions of Americans (Original Post) Dulcinea Sunday OP

I personally know 5 people who are affected by this mountain grammy Sunday #1

WEP was part of Reagan's demonization of public employees valleyrogue Monday #2

mountain grammy

(27,376 posts)

1. I personally know 5 people who are affected by this

Reply to Dulcinea (Original post)

Sun Dec 22, 2024, 08:15 AM

Sunday

And will begin to collect the full Social Security benefits they’re entitled to. 3 of them voted for Reagan who put this mess in place. Total disconnect for 2 who still vote republican.

valleyrogue

(1,191 posts)

2. WEP was part of Reagan's demonization of public employees

Reply to mountain grammy (Reply #1)

Mon Dec 23, 2024, 12:21 AM

Monday

by employing the "double dipper" lie, and also spewed by media outlets like 60 Minutes, which did a hatchet job on public employees in a report it aired in the early 1980s. There is NO "double dipping" when retirees have more than one source of retirement. It is insane to claim it is. "Double dipping" actually refers to retirees from public employment who are rehired in the same or similar positions while still collecting a state/local pension. Those people are rehired because of trouble filling necessary jobs. There are strict rules on "double dipping" in state and local employment.

Allegedly, the original targets for WEP were career military who had big pensions and then got well-paid positions in the private sector. However, as expected, it was moderate to low income public employees who got massively screwed over. Midlife career changers got screwed over the worst of all, since most did not have 30 years of covered employment making "substantial earnings."

Reagan and his ilk used the "double dipper" lie as a wedge issue to create resentment from those who didn't get pensions against those who did. WEP was a sneaky backdoor way of screwing state workers over. GPO passed during the Carter years but didn't take effect until the early 1980s.

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