Social Security benefits may see $2,400 ‘Bernie Bump’ with Democrat-controlled House and Senate: ‘It’s what the American people want.’ Do you qualify?

“A top priority will be to expand Social Security benefits by at least $2,400 a year & extend Social Security’s solvency for generations,” Sanders, who expects to be the next chair of the Social Security subcommittee, wrote in a post on X.

“How? By scrapping the cap & demanding that the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes,” he continued.

This proposal, S.770, was introduced in 2025, but Sanders returned to it in the months leading up to the midterms.

On Aug. 3, Sanders penned a letter stressing this change could avert the funding cliff and help “increase benefits by $2,400 a year and expand Cost-of-Living Adjustments,” in an open letter to his Democratic colleagues. That’s an additional $200 a month in average benefits.

“At a time when the wealthiest people in America are becoming much wealthier, asking them to pay the same percentage of their income into Social Security as teachers, nurses, firefighters, and construction workers is not a radical idea,” he wrote. “It is common sense. It is what the American people want.”

Sanders also took aim at Elon Musk specifically in his letter.

“It means that Elon Musk — the wealthiest man in the world, worth an estimated $690 billion — pays the same amount into Social Security as someone earning $184,500 a year,” Sanders wrote.

Since August, Musk’s net worth has increased to nearly $900B, according to a Forbes live tracker of billionaire wealth.

In the wake of the Democrats’ recent midterm success and Sanders’ expected appointment as chair of the Social Security subcommittee, it appears this proposal might get a shot at becoming reality.

Social Security Expansion Act

Originally reintroduced in February 2025, the Social Security Expansion Act would add additional revenue to the program by extending payroll taxes on wages, salaries and self-employment earnings to income above $250,000. It would also include capital gains and dividends.