Social Security’s Structural Problems Are Hastening Insolvency - AMAC & The Motley Fool
Sean Williams provides a thorough and comprehensive examination of Social Security’s well known long term financial woes in light of newly released Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data. While the pandemic is likely causing its own problems, CBO’s report focuses on demographics. Williams points out the existence of Social Security is not at issue, rather its ability to pay full promised benefits once all asset reserves are depleted, which CBO suggest could be 2031, four years earlier than what The Social Security Board of Trustees predicted earlier this year, before the pandemic effects were known. The main problems beyond increased life expectancy are mostly macroeconomic and include rising income inequality, reduced legal immigration, and a declining birth rate. Williams finished by assessing where both political parties are on reform ideas. Without reform, benefit cuts across the board of 24% will occur automatically once the reserves are fully depleted, whether 2031 or even earlier. 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 current Rep. Larson (D-CT) and merging them with the Association’s own well researched ideas. One component is Social Security PLUS, a new, voluntary 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 staffs over the past several years. Read AMAC’s plan here.