Repealing WEP/GPO Would Raise Deficits, Weaken Social Security

The House of Representatives will soon vote on the Social Security Fairness Act, legislation which would repeal Social Security’s Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO). The unpaid-for bill would add $196 billion to deficits over the next decade and hasten Social Security’s insolvency by roughly six months while adding to the size of the benefit cuts that will automatically take place under current law.  

The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

How is speeding up the date of Social Security’s retirement fund’s insolvency, increasing the size of the automatic benefit cuts that will hit seniors, and adding $200 billion to the deficit a good plan for seniors or for the country? Yet that is exactly what the Social Security Fairness Act would do.

Social Security is just nine years away from insolvency, and our seniors need a fix fast. Congress should not vote to make the problem worse.

The WEP and GPO were created to prevent Social Security from overpaying certain beneficiaries who also collect state and local pensions, which they paid into instead of paying Social Security taxes during their employment for state and local governments. These provisions aren’t perfect, and there are lots of ideas to reform them. But repealing them altogether would move in exactly the wrong direction.

They should call this bill the Social Security UnFairness Act; it creates a Windfall Expansion Provision for a small number of beneficiaries who would get to double-dip their retirement benefits.

At a time when we’re already borrowing $2 trillion a year and retirees are already slated to see a 21 percent benefit cut – an average of $16,500 for a newly retiring couple in 2033 – in just nine years, why would we make it a 22 percent, $17,300 cut in eight and a half years instead?

There is broad consensus among experts and lawmakers that reform, not repeal, of WEP and GPO would ensure fairness and could actually improve the program’s solvency.

Every day we get closer and closer to Social Security insolvency, and we are no closer to solutions than we were years ago when we first knew we had a problem. For those who say they want to protect Social Security this bill goes in the absolute wrong direction.

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For more information, please contact Matt Klucher, Assistant Director for Media Relations, at klucher@crfb.org.