WASHINGTON — Two hundred dollars a month more for Social Security and veterans’ benefit recipients from January to July?

Senate Democrats are pushing the idea. Fiscal watchdogs are not enthusiastic.

Sen. Alex Padilla of California, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and their colleagues see the income boost not only as an important lifeline for seniors and others who would benefit, but also a sensible way to deal with President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.

Sunday, Trump posted on his Truth Social site, “A dividend of at least $2,000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.”

He gave no details, and suggested the money would come from “trillions” collected from higher tariffs — far from what independent models have estimated. While tariff revenue has increased this year, it’s nowhere near trillions of dollars.

Thursday at the White House, Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters, “We’ve actively studying the matter,” which would need congressional approval. The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the Padilla Social Security idea.

Do higher tariffs hurt seniors?

Padilla and Warren see the tariff impact very differently. They say tariffs are driving prices that are hitting people on fixed incomes particularly hard.

“Over 6.5 million Californians rely on Social Security to keep a roof over their head and food on the table,” Padilla said.

“We are fighting to ensure Social Security checks go further as families face rising costs thanks to Trump’s trade wars and Republicans’ billionaire-first economic agenda,” he said.

Warren called the $200 plan “an emergency lifeline for seniors struggling to afford Trump’s tariffs and rising inflation.”

The average monthly Social Security benefit, now $2,015, will go to $2,071 next year. Cost-of-living adjustments to benefits are based on a formula and will go up 2.8% in 2026.

Adding $200 a month “would protect Social Security beneficiaries from the inflation and economic chaos triggered by President Trump’s disastrous, across-the-board tariffs,” said Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare.

And, he said, the 2.8% increase is “extremely modest,” and much of it will go to help pay higher Medicare premiums and other out-of-pocket health costs.

Would the extra $200 be inflationary?

But at the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which studies budget issues, Senior Vice President Marc Goldwein is not a fan.

“It’s completely nonsensical. There are no areas in which this makes sense,” he said.

Social Security recipients, he noted, already get an annual cost-of-living increase. Many benefit from equity in homes they bought long ago and have accumulated savings.

As a result, he said, “I’m not sure what the reason for this (extra benefit) would be. It’s fiscally ridiculous.”

At the Tax Foundation, an independent research organization, senior economist Alex Durante said, “I sympathize with Sen. Warren’s concerns that this administration is not doing enough to address the cost of living, especially as it imposes tariffs which are reducing incomes for Americans.”

But, he said, “expanding benefits for seniors, even if only temporarily, will worsen the Social Security fiscal crisis.”

Seniors tend to be better protected than most people from inflation because of the cost-of-living adjustment. And the federal tax code tends to give seniors more breaks than other age groups, particularly with the standard deduction increasing.

What’s needed, said Durante, are reforms to reduce the overall cost of Social Security, such as clawing back benefits for the wealthiest recipients.

“But absent any comprehensive reform,” he said, “it would be fiscally irresponsible to expand benefits further, especially for those who don’t need it.”

____

©2025 The Sacramento Bee. Visit at sacbee.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.