The Social Security 2100 Act is critical for millennials and small business owners

Image: Jeff Djevdet via Flickr Creative Commons, https://flic.kr/p/JZRWEC

[The Hill] Expanding Social Security is critical for millennials and small business owners — and especially for millennial small business owners.

We are co-owners of a small business, We Act Radio in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, DC. As small business owners and managers, one of whom is a millennial, one a Gen-Xer, and with mainly millennials as employees, we strongly support the Social Security 2100 Act.

This important legislation expands Social Security and ensures that all benefits can be paid in full and on time into the 22nd century. House Democrats, led by Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), the chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee, have united around the Social Security 2100 Act. The legislation has 210 co-sponsors – nearly 90 percent of House Democrats.

In addition to being the co-founder of We Act Radio, Alex is also the executive director of Social Security Works, which has nine full time employees – all of whom are millennials or Gen-Xers. So, we’re very familiar with how the Social Security 2100 Act is structured. It increases Social Security benefits for everyone, fixes the formula for yearly cost-of-living-adjustments so that it reflects the real expenses beneficiaries face, and raises Social Security’s minimum benefit to 125 percent of the poverty level. It also ensures that Social Security remains strong for current and future generations, into the 22nd century.

Republicans, led by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), are attacking the bill in predictable fashion: Manipulating numbers in an attempt to foment generational warfare and undermine all of our economic security, falsely claiming that this wise legislation will hurt millennials and small business owners, like us.

As small business owners, we are worried about increasing costs — especially health care and rent. But we are not at all worried about the modest and gradual payroll contribution increase in the Social Security 2100 Act. We are much more worried about the costs we will face if we do nothing to address the looming retirement income crisis.