Janet Yellen Doesn’t Know Tax Rate to Cover Joe Biden’s Proposed Tax Hikes to Save Social Security

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted she did not know what the tax rate would have to be to cover President Joe Biden’s proposed tax hikes on those earning over $400,000 to save social security.

During Thursday’s the Senate Finance Committee hearing, Yellen vowed the president is willing to work with Congress to develop a plan to address Social Security. That plan reportedly includes raising 4.5 trillion in taxes from people making over $400,000. Biden has also pledged to fix Medicare, the national debt, and Social Security.

“The president in the past has proposed increasing taxes on those making over $400,000 to pay for it,” Sen. Bill Cassidy explained. “What would the rates have to be on the two percent of Americans who earn over $400,000 dollars to do Medicare, the debt and deficit, and also to address the 75 year shortfall of Social Security?”

Yellen responded by stated Biden has vowed to raise taxes on high income earners.

“Do you think it’s realistic he [Biden] can pay for Medicare, debt and deficit, and also address the 75 year shortfall of social by only… laying higher taxes on those who make more than two percent [in the tax bracket]?” Cassidy reiterated. “I’m sure there is a projection of how much those would have to be. Can you tell us what those rates would have to be to do everything he is saying?”

“I can’t tell you that,” Yellen admitted.

Cassidy responded, “If you cannot tell me I presume they [the White House] have not actually modeled what those rates would have to be, which tells me he has not been developing his plan” to protect Social Security,” he said, noting Social Security recipients will receive a 24 percent cut in nine years unless the program is shored up.

“The president is completely committed to protecting seniors who rely on social security,” Yellen claimed.

As a senator, Biden introduced legislation that would sunset all federal programs, including social security, every four years when he was a freshman United States senator in 1975. “When I argued they should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security as well,” then-Sen. Biden said on the Senate floor.

Since then, Biden has reversed course, claiming he aims to protect seniors, even though Cassidy doubts he has a plan.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.