Manchin calls for deal on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid in new Congress
by Alexander Bolton - 11/03/22 7:00 PM ET
Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Thursday called for a broad bipartisan deal to protect the solvency of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, popular programs that face serious funding issues over the next few decades.
“You’re going to get your financial house in order. We cannot live with this crippling debt,” Manchin, whose pivotal vote both delayed and helped pass big pieces of President Biden’s agenda, told Fortune’s Alan Murray at a CEO conference.
“If we don’t look at the trust funds that are going bankrupt, whether they be Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, highway, all the ones — there are tremendous problems right now,” Manchin said when asked where he sees areas of potential compromise in Washington after the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
“If we can’t come to grips of how we face the financial challenge that this country has, then we’re all going to be paying a price that we can’t afford,” he said.
Manchin, who sank Biden’s ambitious $3 trillion Build Back Better agenda in December, has often talked about the financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicaid.
The Social Security Administration announced last year that it is not projected to have the funds to pay full benefits past 2033.
In February, Manchin proposed addressing that shortfall by increasing the amount of income subject to taxation to fund Social Security from $147,000 to $400,000.
And Manchin pushed back hard against Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) effort to expand Medicare to include vision, dental and hearing benefits by arguing that the core program itself was in danger because of the soaring federal debt.
more
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/3718743-manchin-calls-for-deal-on-social-security-medicare-medicaid-in-new-congress/
