New Bill Would Guarantee Social Security Benefits in Debt Limit Standoff

Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., introduced Wednesday the Social Security Guarantee Act, H.R.521, a bill guaranteeing “the right of individuals to receive Social Security benefits under title II of the Social Security Act in full with an accurate annual cost-of-living adjustment.”

“I have heard from many West Virginia senior citizens concerned about the payment of Social Security benefits given the current debt crisis,” Mooney said in a statement. “While Congress works on a long-term solution, we owe a legal guarantee to those who have paid into the system and been promised Social Security that their benefits will be fully paid.”

Mary Johnson, Social Security and Medicare policy analyst for The Senior Citizens League, told ThinkAdvisor Thursday in an email that a version of Mooney’s bill has been introduced in previous sessions. “It’s extremely popular with Social Security recipients,” she said, “and The Senior Citizens League has supported the bill in the past based on that interest.”

Mooney’s legislation, Johnson said, is “an important first step in strengthening Social Security,” but “the problem with this bill as a free standing measure, is that there needs to be an enforcement or triggering mechanism which it does not yet have.”