Former Vice President Joe Biden. (Photo: AndrewCuatro/Biden campaign)

In laying out his economic priorities, presumptive Democraticnominee Joe Biden, the former vice president, vowed to reject"every effort to cut, privatize or weaken" Social Security,including attempts to raise the retirement age, diminish benefitsby cutting cost-of-living adjustments, or reduce earnedbenefits.

Biden's 110-page economic manifesto, released after hisvisit to Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Thursday, called SocialSecurity "the most enduring thread in our nation's social safetynet." Biden pledged to "enact policies to make Social Security moreprogressive, including meaningfully increasing minimum benefitpayments, increasing benefits for long-duration beneficiaries, andprotecting surviving spouses from benefit cuts."

Democrats, Biden said, will also "act to protect public andprivate pensions" and "equalize the network of retirement savingtax breaks so that working people can build their nest eggsfaster."

Making college more affordable and authorizing up to $10,000 instudent debt relief per borrower also topped Biden's list.

As to bouncing back from the pandemic, Biden said: "The economyis not working for the American people. In a matter of weeks, theabject failure of President Trump and his Administration tocompetently respond to the COVID-19 pandemic erased all the jobgains made since the Obama-Biden administration pulled the countryout of the Great Recession, and plunged the economy into recessiononce more."

Solving the public health crisis posed by the pandemic, Bidensaid, "is the surest way to get the economy back on track."