President Joe Biden is expected to promote the Democrats-only $1.9 trillion COVID-19 spending bill’s shoring up of multiemployer pension plans when he travels to Cleveland, Ohio.
More than 200 multiemployer plans are poised to become insolvent because of economy-affected investments, and roughly 2 million to 3 million workers face retirement benefit cuts without the American Rescue Plan’s special financial assistance program, the final rule for which Biden will announce during his day trip Wednesday, according to the White House.
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“Because of the American Rescue Plan, every multiemployer pension plan that faced near-term insolvency and benefit cuts and that receives Special Financial Assistance is projected to remain solvent through 2051, and many of them for much longer,” an official told reporters late Tuesday.
“Two to three million workers and retirees who would have faced dramatic cuts to their pensions will receive the benefits they paid into and depended on for their retirement security, and previous cuts to their pensions will be reversed,” the source said.
The White House also compared Biden’s move to a proposal made by Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), which the official criticized for threatening retirement savings “by putting Social Security on the chopping block every five years.” Scott leads the Senate Republican campaign committee.
Republicans have repeatedly criticized Biden for his economic management and the repercussions it has had on seniors, for instance, amid 41-year high inflation.
“Twenty-five percent of Americans are being forced to delay retirement because of inflation,” Republican National Committee spokesman Tommy Pigott told reporters last month. “Biden isn’t building from the ‘bottom up and middle out.’ Instead, he is hollowing out the middle as the bottom falls out.”
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Biden will be accompanied in Cleveland by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, American Rescue Plan coordinator Gene Sperling, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Reps. Shontel Brown and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), as well as Democratic Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb.
Senate candidate Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) appears to be skipping another White House event.
