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Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who was defeated by a Trump-backed challenger in a GOP primary earlier this year, is touting his proposal to reform Social Security before he leaves the Senate, after the Trump administration projected the entitlement program will not provide full benefits within seven years.
In an interview with CNBC for a story published Tuesday, the Louisiana Republican outlined his “big idea” for the program. His proposal calls for investing $1.5 trillion in an investment fund separate from Social Security’s trust funds over five years.
Over 65 to 70 years, the money in the fund would grow to 60 to 65 percent of Social Security’s unfunded accrued liability, Cassidy added.
“All risk is borne by the fund; people would get their promised benefits,” Cassidy told CNBC on June 10.
Earlier this month, the board of trustees of Social Security and Medicare reported Social Security’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund will be able to pay 100 percent of its total scheduled benefits until the fourth quarter of 2032 — one quarter earlier than the trustees projected last year.
Once the deadline hits, the OASI fund will be able to cover 78 percent of its total scheduled benefits, an increase of 1 percentage point relative to last year’s report.
After the trustees released their report, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called for Republicans to act on Social Security reform if they maintain control of Congress in 2027.
But some Senate Republicans pushed back on Johnson’s proposal, arguing the topic is not one to raise during an election year. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), for instance, said he gets nervous when lawmakers discuss addressing or reforming Social Security.
“Addressed? Reformed? That’s usually code for ‘cut.’ I’m not in favor of that,” he said earlier this month.
Cassidy, on the other hand, joined Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) in urging their congressional colleagues to address the looming deadline for Social Security.
In a joint statement released on June 10, the four senators called on Congress to “join us in doing what we were elected to do—legislate on hard issues and protect this lifeline program for our kids and grandkids.”
Three of the four lawmakers are departing the upper chamber: Tillis, Durbin and Cassidy, who finished third in the GOP primary last month to President Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) and state Treasurer John Fleming (R). Tillis, like Cassidy, has battled with Trump; he announced his retirement last summer.
The quartet added, “Congress has no shortage of ideas, we just need to actually debate them and vote.”
One of those ideas is Cassidy’s proposal, which he and Kaine have floated in the past. Last year, the two wrote in a co-authored Washington Post opinion piece that there “is a nationwide appetite to implement a bipartisan, commonsense plan” on Social Security.
The Louisiana senator has said his idea is modeled after the National Railroad Retirement Investment Fund, which Congress created in 2001 to allow a federal trust to invest railroad workers’ pensions in private securities.
“If it doesn’t pass this Congress, I am speaking to colleagues who will be here next Congress and seeing who’s interested in kind of carrying the torch,” Cassidy said of his proposal.
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Bill Cassidy Dick Durbin Donald Trump John Fleming Josh Hawley Julia Letlow Mike Johnson Thom Tillis Tim KaineCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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