A political farewell to one of the best friends Social Security ever had in Congress
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- Rep. John Larson fought hard in Congress to protect Social Security. Will his much younger successor play the same role?
The youth movement among our political leaders, especially among Democrats, is in full cry. On the whole, this looks to be a positive inflection point in our political leadership, empowering a new generation of leaders advocating needed changes in the government’s relationship with its constituents.
But in some particulars it’s misplaced. As the smoke from the recent party primaries clears, it’s proper to take stock in what we’ve lost, alongside what we may gain from a changing of the guard.
For example, take Rep. John B. Larson (D-Conn.), 78, who was turfed out of his seat in his state’s Aug. 11 primary by his Democratic challenger, former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, 47.
When it comes to fighting for Social Security, no one has worked harder than Rep. Larson.
— Social Security advocates Nancy Altman, Max Richtman and Rich Fiesta, the day before Larson’s defeat in a Democratic primary
Given that Larson is in his 28th year as a member of congress, it sounds reasonable to suggest that it’s his time to go. But that means overlooking Larson’s most important role in the House, as a member of both the majority and (currently) the minority. And that’s his persistent campaign to preserve Social Security — indeed, to enhance it so it serves today’s workers as well or better than it has served Americans since its enactment in 1935.
There doesn’t seem to be much risk that Bronin’s election, which looks likely, will undermine the progressive faction in the House.
Connecticut’s 1st Congressional District, which Larson represents, is perhaps the bluest district in a blue state, and Bronin’s policy positions tick all the appropriate progressive boxes. But it will probably take years for Bronin to acquire the credibility on Social Security that Larson possessed, even assuming that he wishes to do so.
Larson’s instrument has been the Social Security 2100 Act, which he first introduced in 2017. The act has never passed, but in its draft versions it has embodied several principles that remain fundamental to the Democratic approach to Social Security.
Among them: augmenting benefits to the lowest-wage workers; providing coverage to those whose work has been outside the system, such as family caregivers; and raising Social Security taxes on the rich, who have increasingly avoided paying their fair share of the costs of this all-important antipoverty program. More on that in a moment.
Feeling their progressive oats after a few years in the wilderness, House Democrats on Tuesday revived a proposal to increase and expand Social Security benefits while making the program more solvent for the foreseeable future.
Larson’s loss didn’t result from his championing Social Security. The thrust of Bronin’s campaign was almost entirely that Larson had grown too old in the job, and the path should be cleared for new blood (i.e., himself).
Nothing is new about the drive to bring fresh faces and fresh ideas into the political mainstream. Youth movements arise regularly in politics, especially in times of partisan discontent.
George Orwell, whose observations about the politics and mores of his time remain relevant to the present, wrote (in 1932) of the youth movement that erupted in Britain in 1918.
“At that time,” he wrote in “The Road to Wigan Pier,” his classic about class and economics, “there was, among the young, a curious cult of hatred of ‘old men.’ The dominance of ‘old men’ was held to be responsible for every evil known to humanity, and every accepted institution from [Sir Walter] Scott’s novels to the House of Lords was derided merely because ‘old men’ were in favor of it.”
Orwell traced the phenomenon to Britain’s experience in World War I, which he wrote “had been conducted mainly by old men and had been conducted with supreme incompetence. By 1918 everyone under forty was in a bad temper with his elders, and the mood of anti-militarism which followed naturally upon the fighting was extended into a general revolt against orthodoxy and authority.”
Today’s youth movement, which is concentrated among Democrats, has an analogous origin. It’s rooted in distaste for a politics that has impoverished a generation while filling the pockets of the wealthy.
In some cases, the need to usher superannuated politicians out the door is indisputable. A prime specimen was Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal.), whose mental and physical incapacities became manifest as she neared the end of her life; in 2023 she died in office at 90.
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On the other hand, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), led her Democratic caucus with a firm hand as Speaker until she yielded the gavel in 2023 at age 82, having notched one of the most successful speakerships in history. (She’s not running for reelection this year.)
Joe Biden, whose apparently faltering faculties became a political talking point during his 2024 presidential reelection campaign, when he was 82 and was in the process of returning the U.S. economy to its pre-pandemic strength when he lost to Donald Trump — who at the age of 80 has been systematically dismantling Biden’s economic policies to the disadvantage of middle-class and working Americans.
Meanwhile, has anybody heard recently from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), age 84? He hasn’t been seen in public since mid-June. At the moment, he’s regarded as one of those politicians determined to hold on to their seats with what Orwell (him again) described as their “prehensile bottoms.”
As I wrote in 2023, when the age issue was all the rage, “concern-trolling about the advanced age of government leaders hasn’t always been a path to political success.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt cited a “hardening of the judicial arteries” in announcing his 1937 scheme to pack the Supreme Court, which involved shifting the politics of the court to the left by trying to force justices to retire when they reached the age of 70, or adding a justice to the court for every sitting justice who refused. FDR’s plan collapsed after it provoked widespread opposition, the most significant political failure of the New Deal.
That brings us back to the Social Security 2100 Act. The measure, which was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), isn’t perfect. In fact it has been revised at least three times, typically to address political wavelets that come and go.
In all versions, over time it would eliminate the cap on payroll taxes, which are currently limited to 12.4% on wage income up to a maximum of $184,500. That’s a maximum tax of $22,878, divided 50/50 between workers and their employers.
Because of the cap, the effective payroll tax rate on someone with income of $1 million falls to about 2.3%; in reality it’s even lower, because unearned income such as capital gains, interest and dividends, which constitute half or more of the income of wealthy households, isn’t taxed at all.
Originally, the bill called for raising the payroll tax rate by one-tenth of a percentage point a year, to an employer/employee combined 14.8% by the 2040. On the other hand, Larson would reduce the income tax on Social Security earnings, returning a bit to middle- and lower-income workers. Social Security’s actuaries calculated that Larson’s bill would ensure the program’s solvency for at least 75 years, but in practical terms into the almost limitless future.
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The rate increase was dropped in subsequent versions, but it was supplanted by a 12.4% tax on net investment income for taxpayers with income over $400,000. That would guarantee the system’s solvency into the 2060s, the actuaries calculated.
Social Security’s advocates plainly could see Larson’s defeat coming. The day before the Connecticut primary, three of them published an op-ed calling Larson an “irreplaceable” asset to their cause. “When it comes to fighting for Social Security,” they wrote, “no one has worked harder than Rep. Larson.” They pointed out that the “Social Security 2100 Act earned in the last Congress support from over 90% of House Democrats, representing all corners of the Democratic coalition.”
Bronin hasn’t said anything specific about Social Security, beyond a campaign pledge that he’ll work for “strengthening” the program. I asked his campaign whether he had any details to offer, but didn’t get a reply. Larson, for his part, has reacted to his defeat with a gentlemanly call for all Democrats to come together to defeat Trump.
Unlike Republicans, who have spent decades slandering Social Security as an undeserved “entitlement” and suggesting that it’s responsible for federal budget deficits (impossible, as a matter of law) and sluggish economic growth (untrue, as a matter of fact), Democrats have worked to preserve it, if not always effectively.
In coming Congresses, Republicans will be offering all sorts of nostrums to “save” Social Security. History says that these will aim to impose benefit cuts on workers to protect the rich from higher taxes.
Will the Democrats stand fast against this long GOP campaign? With Larson’s defeat, they’ll be short one leader. Let’s hope the rest of the party keeps the faith.
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Ideas expressed in the piece
- The column argues that the Democratic “youth movement” is energizing and generally positive, yet contends that an indiscriminate push to replace older officeholders risks sacrificing hard‑won expertise and institutional memory, particularly on complex programs such as Social Security.
- In particular, the piece presents Rep. John B. Larson as an “irreplaceable” champion of Social Security whose Social Security 2100 proposals reflect a model progressive approach: across‑the‑board benefit increases, stronger minimum benefits for long‑term low‑wage workers, more accurate cost‑of‑living adjustments geared to seniors’ spending, and caregiver credits that count time spent caring for family toward future benefits.[1][2][4][7][8]
- Furthermore, the column highlights that Larson’s plan improves protections for widows and widowers in two‑income households, extends student benefits to age 25, repeals the government pension offset and windfall elimination provisions, and seeks to reduce the tax burden on Social Security benefits for middle‑ and lower‑income recipients, while financing these changes by subjecting earnings above $400,000 and high‑income investment income to Social Security taxes and consolidating the trust funds for more stable long‑term management.[1][2][3][4][7][8]
- The piece notes that Larson and allied advocates describe Social Security as a “sacred trust,” emphasizing that Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust is designed both to extend solvency and to cut taxes for many middle‑class beneficiaries by raising the thresholds at which benefits are taxable and ensuring enhanced benefits do not reduce eligibility for programs such as Medicaid, CHIP, or SSI.[5][6][7][8]
- The column contends that Larson’s primary defeat was driven less by disagreement over Social Security than by age‑focused campaign rhetoric about “new blood,” and suggests that even a progressive successor like Luke Bronin will need years to build Larson’s credibility and deep relationships on Social Security policy.
- By contrasting effective elder leaders such as Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden with genuinely incapacitated figures like Dianne Feinstein and the prolonged absence of Mitch McConnell, the piece argues that age should not serve as a blanket disqualification; instead, it urges voters to judge leaders on capacity, record, and policy commitments rather than birth date alone.
- Finally, the column frames Larson’s loss as a strategic setback for Social Security advocates inside Congress, warning that Democrats will now be short one seasoned leader as Republicans continue to advance “save Social Security” plans that, in the column’s telling, tend to protect the wealthy from higher taxes by shifting the burden onto workers through benefit cuts.
Different views on the topic
- From the perspective of generational‑change advocates, Bronin’s victory reflects a legitimate desire among Democratic voters to replace long‑tenured lawmakers with younger leaders, with the campaign’s emphasis on “new blood” implying that any loss of specialized expertise, including on Social Security, is an acceptable price for fresher perspectives and more representative leadership.
- Supporters of stronger age norms or formal retirement expectations argue that extended service can entrench political power and reduce responsiveness, and point to episodes such as Feinstein’s visible decline, Biden’s widely debated faculties, and McConnell’s long public absence as examples of the system failing to guard against diminished capacity in high office.
- Policy analysts reviewing the Social Security 2100 framework note that many of its benefit enhancements are temporary and scheduled to expire after 2036, and therefore caution that the legislation may postpone more durable solvency decisions while leaving future retirees uncertain if Congress does not extend the higher formulas and special credits.[8]
- In contrast to the column’s celebration of Social Security expansion, longstanding Republican and fiscal conservative critiques emphasize that growing entitlement costs—Social Security included—contribute to wider budget pressures and, in their view, can dampen economic growth, leading these critics to favor options such as raising the retirement age, modifying benefit formulas, or promoting greater reliance on private retirement savings rather than large across‑the‑board benefit increases.
