Congressional inaction the norm despite dire predictions
This thoughtful piece brings together experts from The Concord Coalition, The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and The Peterson Foundation among others, for comment on the state of Social Security and Medicare after the release of last week’s Trustees report. All agree everyone’s Social Security benefits will be slashed by about 20% in 2034, and all lament that neither Congress, nor presidential candidates, nor the President are taking the issue seriously. Financial solutions to Social Security include higher taxes, restraining the program’s growth rate, or a combination of both. But agreement among Republicans and Democrats ends there. The former oppose raising the payroll tax, while the latter reject ideas like raising the retirement age or changing or eliminating annual cost-of-living increases. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office calculated that imposing the payroll tax on earnings greater than $250,000 extends the solvency of the Social Security trust funds by just ten years. Read the full piece here.
The Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) believes Social Security must be preserved and modernized. This can be achieved by making modest changes in cost of living adjustments and the retirement age, with no additional taxes on workers. AMAC advocates for a bipartisan compromise, “The Social Security Guarantee Act,” taking selected portions of bills introduced by former Rep. Johnson (R-TX) and Rep. Larson (D-CT) and merging them with the Association’s own well researched ideas. One component is Social Security PLUS, a new yet voluntary early retirement plan that would allow all earners to have more income available at retirement. This component is intended to appeal especially to younger workers. AMAC is resolute in its mission that Social Security be preserved and modernized and has gotten the attention of lawmakers in DC, meeting with a great many congressional offices and their legislative staffs over the past several years. Read AMAC’s plan here.