Biden urged to make Social Security expansion part of 2024 platform

Progressive groups have been urging the White House and Democratic leadership to build on President Joe Biden’s success in defending Social Security by making proposals to expand the program as part of his 2024 reelection campaign platform.

Biden famously stood down Republican efforts to include cuts to the program in debt ceiling negotiations in his most recent State of the Union speech, forcing Republicans not only to agree to keeping Social Security and Medicare out of the mix, but also to endorse the programs. “I never thought my third State of the Union address would be negotiated on the floor of the United States Congress,” Biden said after the speech. “But it worked.”

It worked to gain the electorate’s trust, too. A Navigator survey conducted after the SOTU found voters overwhelmingly trust Biden and the Democrats more in both “reforming” and “protecting” Social Security and Medicare, with independents trusting them more by double-digits. A Data for Progress survey after the speech found “an overwhelming majority of likely voters (78 percent) are in favor of the Social Security Expansion Act. This includes 85 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of Independents, and 72 percent of Republicans.”