Poll: 96% want Senate candidates to address Social Security cuts

Ninety-six percent of voters want Senate candidates to explain how they’ll prevent an automatic 22% Social Security benefit cut for 70 million Americans, a new poll finds, as the program’s trust fund moves toward a 2032 deadline.

A poll by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a foundation focused on reducing the national debt and long-term federal fiscal sustainability, found 92% of Americans are concerned the growing national debt is driving up the cost of living.

Inflation climbed 4.2% over the past year through May, the highest rate in more than three years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The foundation’s Fiscal Confidence Index, Peterson’s own measure of public sentiment on the debt, stands at 39 out of 200 in June, indicating pessimism about the nation’s fiscal outlook.

Social Security’s retirement trust fund is projected to be depleted in 2032, triggering an automatic 22% cut to benefits for about 70 million Americans. If Congress doesn’t act, beneficiaries could lose about $500 ...