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Biden Unity Task Force Plan Underscores Retirement Priorities


Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, developed the “Unity Task Force” recommendations in consultation with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) as well as current and former lawmakers. The involvement of Sanders, a former presidential candidate, is a bid to engage and build support among the liberal wing of the Democratic Party by devising a progressive agenda to be pursued by a possible Biden Administration.

 

Measures to guarantee a secure and dignified retirement are a centerpiece of the 110 pages of domestic policy recommendations issued in mid-July by the Biden presidential campaign.

Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, developed the “Unity Task Force” recommendations in consultation with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) as well as current and former lawmakers. The involvement of Sanders, a former presidential candidate, is a bid to engage and build support among the liberal wing of the Democratic Party by devising a progressive agenda to be pursued by a possible Biden Administration.

Retirement policy is addressed in a section on the economy, one of six key domestic policy areas addressed in the plan. The other policy focuses of the Unity Task Force plan are health care, climate change, criminal justice, education, and immigration.

The plan notes that too many workers lack access to adequate retirement savings vehicles. It proposes to expand Social Security by making it more progressive and generous. It would also abolish windfall elimination provisions and government pension offsets that affect the Social Security benefits of many public workers.

The plan also proposes to shore up public and private pensions to enable workers to keep benefits they have earned by providing a path forward for distressed plans.

Additionally, the plan would “equalize the network of retirement saving tax breaks so that working people can build their nest eggs faster, while also providing more equitable access to these accounts through automatic enrollment and relaxed contribution restrictions for unpaid caregivers.”
The plan asserted that Democrats “will reject every effort to cut, privatize, or weaken Social Security, including attempts to raise the retirement age, diminish benefits by cutting cost-of-living adjustments, or reduce earned benefits,” adding, “We will put Social Security on a path to solvency and strengthen it in perpetuity.”  

The Biden campaign laid out its most detailed retirement policy recommendations in July 2019 in the Biden Plan for Older Americans. Among other things, it would eliminate rules that hurt teachers and other public sector workers who either switch jobs or who have earned retirement benefits from various sources. The Biden Plan would eliminate these provisions by ensuring that teachers not eligible for Social Security would receive benefits sooner than the current ten-year period required of many teachers. The Biden Plan would also stop imposing benefit cuts on workers and surviving beneficiaries who are covered by both Social Security and another pension.

The Biden Plan would also create small business tax break for starting a retirement plan and giving workers the chance to save at work, and would enable almost all workers who lack retirement options at work to easily save for retirement at work via payroll deduction.


Further Reading: New York Times 6 Takeaways from the Biden- Sanders Joint Task Force Proposals

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