Santorum, Voinovich, DeMint Introduce Benefit Guarantee Legislation

October 25, 2001

Seniors Rick Santorum (R-PA) and George Voinovich (R-OH) have introduced legislation (S. 1558) that would give Social Security recipients an explicit property right to their benefits. Representative Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced companion legislation in the house.

Currently workers have no legal, contractual, or property right to Social Security benefits. The Supreme Court ruled, in the case of Flemming v. Nestor, That Social Security is simply a tax and a spending program, with no real relation between the two. Congress is free to change, reduce, or even take away Social Security benefits at any time. (See, Charles Rounds, “Property Rights: The Hidden Issue of Social Security Reform,” Cato Institute Social Security Paper no. 19, April 19, 2001.)

The “Social Security Benefits Guarantee Act” would require the Secretary of the Treasury to issue to each Social Security recipient a certificate that includes a written guarantee of a fixed monthly benefit plus a cost-of-living increase.

The legislation is designed to both reassure seniors who may fear that proposals for individual accounts might mean a reduction in their benefits, and to force Congress to face up to the implications of paying for benefits currently promised, but non-funded.

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