Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who supports expanding Social Security and Medicare and raising taxes on the wealthy, will get a seat on the Senate’s powerful Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over those big issues.
Sanders supports increasing Social Security benefits for existing recipients by $2,400 a year and increasing cost-of-living adjustments to keep up with rising costs.
He has proposed paying for this expansion of benefits by applying payroll taxes on all income more than $250,000. Under current law, the Social Security payroll tax is capped at $168,600.
Sanders has also called for expanding Medicare with improved and comprehensive benefits, covering dental, hearing and vision care and phasing out insurance premiums, deductibles and co-payments.
Sanders has suggested requiring employees and employers to pay income-based premiums and proposed raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for expanded health care.
He proposed raising the top marginal tax rate on wealthy individuals to 54 percent during his 2016 campaign for president.
He has supported a 77 percent estate tax rate on inheritances of more than $1 billion.
In 2021, he called for setting the corporate tax rate at 35 percent and doubling the minimum tax rate on intangible assets such as patents, trademarks and copyrights.
Sanders is one of five new Democratic additions to the Finance Committee, along with Sens. Tina Smith (Minn.), Ben Ray Luján (N.M.), Raphael Warnock (Ga.) and Peter Welch (Vt.).
The senior senator from Vermont joins Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), another outspoken progressive voice, on the tax-writing committee.
Several Democratic seats opened up on the panel after Sen. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Tom Carper (Del.) and Ben Cardin (Md.) retired and Sens. Bob Casey (Pa.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) lost their reelection bids.
The committee has primary jurisdiction over Social Security, Medicare, trade and tax policy.
