Addressing the Solvency Issue–A Cause and Effect Discussion
Political analysts Yuval Levin and James C. Capretta, in a post today on The Weekly Standard, take aim at America’s deteriorating financial situation, at the core of which they assert is the steadily growing federal deficit and it’s projected 10-year cumulative tab of $12.4 trillion. They also focus on the debt to GDP ratio (78% this year) and it’s projected increase to as high as 210% in just 30 years, a level unprecedented in history.
Levin and Capretta cite the impact of deficits on economic growth, along with the heightened risk they present for a major financial crisis. As their analysis continues, they expose what they consider to be the root of the problem, described as the “unrelenting growth of entitlement spending, which has been underway for more than four decades and will continue uninterrupted in the current century if reforms are not put in place.” Despite the unfortunate and repetitive use of the term “entitlement” to describe these programs–specifically Social Security and Medicare–Levin and Capretta go on to discuss, in broad terms, Republican and Democratic viewpoints on solutions to the impending crisis. Their premise is that the problem is no longer “off in the distance,” but rather at hand in 2018, since this is the first year in decades that Social Security will be eating into its reserves to meet current obligations.
So where do we go from here? As the Levin/Capretta article concludes, the time is right to cut through the rhetoric of major benefit cuts and/or “taxing the rich.” Their article suggests that “realistic proposals would make gradual changes in incremental ways,” with the current debate focusing on ways to ensure programs like Social Security and Medicare continue “to provide the protection taxpayers expect while being affordable and consistent with the economic dynamism and growth that pay for it.”
And that’s where the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) comes in. AMAC has been a long-standing advocate for a solution to the Social Security solvency issue that preserves the system for future generations without raising taxes. In conjunction with this advocacy, AMAC has developed a legislative framework–The Combined Social Security Guarantee and Social Security Plus Initiative–designed to increase benefits for those with lower earnings and ensure continuation of earned benefits for all, while providing a mechanism for all earners to have more income available at retirement through a complementary or supplemental Social Security Plus account. Learn more about AMAC’s proposal here…
Read the Levin/Capretta article in full here…
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