More than 150 Democratic lawmakers on Thursday launched a group aimed at protecting and expanding Social Security benefits. The group of progressive Democrats, known as the “Expand Social Security Caucus,” is being led by Senate co-chairs Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and House co-chairs John Larson (D-Conn.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and Conor Lamb (D-Pa.).
The caucus was launched, in part, to disprove President Trump’s claim at a campaign rally in Montana that “Democrats want to destroy your Social Security...and I’m going to save your Social Security.”
The caucus was organized with assistance from Social Security Works, an advocacy nonprofit seeking to unite lawmakers behind expanding Social Security, according to the organization’s communications director, Linda Benesch. “The goals of the caucus...[are] not to promote any one specific piece of legislation,” Benesch told The Hill, noting there are multiple expansion bills Democrats have introduced in the House and Senate that could benefit from the caucus’s support.
Lawmakers emphasized their belief that Social Security is an insurance program rather than an “entitlement.”
You can find more information from The Hill here, or Senator Sanders’s press release here.