At Manchester Event, Social Security Tax Hike Advocates Back Pappas In 2026 Senate Race

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), supports lifting the cap on Social Security taxes, raising payroll taxes across the board… and Chris Pappas for U.S. Senate.

Richtman was with Pappas in Manchester on Monday at a roundtable on entitlement programs, making his case that the solution to Social Security’s approaching shortfall is to increase taxes, as opposed to other reforms like raising the retirement age, means-testing benefits, or any form of privatization.

“Social Security is on the ballot this time,” Richtman said. “Anyone who’s elected to the Senate will be there in 2032, and that’s when the trust fund starts to run dry.”

The Social Security Board of Trustees reported in June that the program’s retirement trust fund is now projected to run dry in late 2032 — months earlier than the trustees had estimated in 2025 — after which the program could pay only about 78% of scheduled benefits, roughly a 22% cut, unless Congress acts. Senators elected this November will be in office when that deadline arrives.

“There won’t be enough for full benefits unless Congress steps up and does something,” Richtman told Pappas. “We need to make sure that Congress addresses this in a fair, equitable, and reasonable way. And I think that can be done, especially if we have people in the U.S. Senate like you.”

The NCPSSM has endorsed Pappas and given him a 100 percent lifetime rating for his votes in Congress.

“I’m really committed to this fight,” Pappas said after Richtman presented him with a pair of boxing gloves. “We have to work to protect the program in a way that will allow seniors to retire with dignity.”

The National Committee’s 2026 legislative agenda calls for eliminating the cap on wages subject to Social Security taxes, which are currently capped at $184,500. In addition to ending the cap, the group also supports a universal payroll tax rate increase.

“A gradual increase in the Social Security payroll tax rate by a very small percentage to be phased in over a long period of time would significantly strengthen Social Security’s long-term financial outlook,” the organization says.

Pappas endorsed the National Committee’s stance that benefits should not be touched. In fact, he told the roundtable he wanted taxpayers to “provide more support, especially for low-income seniors.”

Pappas was less clear about how he would accomplish this as mandatory cuts loom. Rather than supporting or rejecting higher taxes, Pappas dodged.

“You always have to get people together and get good ideas on the table, and I am supportive of a commission that would put good ideas on the table,” Pappas said. “We can’t afford to see cuts in benefits. There is no room in budgets for seniors to see any sort of benefit cut.”

Pappas added that “those at the very, very top of the income spectrum” should pay more.

Richtman used the event to attack former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, one of the Republicans seeking the GOP nomination, over his support for former President George W. Bush’s 2005 proposal to create voluntary personal retirement accounts.

“Your opponent, former Sen. Sununu, led the charge to privatize Social Security,” Richtman told Pappas. “When I read that he was thinking about running for the Senate again, it was like watching one of those zombie movies. He’s back trying to privatize Social Security.”

Pappas echoed that attack, telling WMUR’s Adam Sexton that Sununu’s position would be a major issue in the general election if Sununu wins the Republican nomination.

“That was a program, by the way, that would have added trillions of dollars to the debt and allowed Wall Street to charge fees on New Hampshire retirees,” Pappas said. “What we have works.”

Sununu pushed back.

“Chris Pappas is recycling a two-decade-old scare attack because he has no plan for saving Social Security today,” he told NHJournal. “My position is simple and clear: keep every promise to seniors and never cut Social Security benefits. Instead of trying to frighten people, Chris Pappas should offer real solutions.

“Chris Pappas has spent 8 years in Congress ignoring the problem and hoping no one has noticed how ineffective he really is.”

Bush’s proposal would have allowed workers to divert a portion of their existing payroll taxes into individually owned investment accounts. Sununu’s version only impacted people under the age of 55 and federally guaranteed benefits equal to or greater than everything Social Security promised.

A 2025 retrospective analysis by American Enterprise Institute economist Andrew Biggs found that, based on actual investment returns, low- and middle-income workers retiring in 2025 generally would have received more combined retirement income under the Bush approach. And they would not face a 22% benefits cut in 2032.

An analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, modeling a 24 percent across-the-board cut using 2025 trustees data — a reduction the group calls “similarly sized” to the 22 percent now projected — found that about 21 percent of New Hampshire residents would be directly affected, the sixth-largest share of any state. The average monthly benefit would fall by $553, the third-steepest cut in the nation, behind only Connecticut and New Jersey.

The NCPSSM has also endorsed Stefany Shaheen in the NH-01 Democratic primary. Like Pappas, she has declined to say if she supports the group’s proposed tax hikes or how she would avoid cutting benefits.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.