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How Does a $17,400 Cut to your Social Security Income Sound? - CBS News
That Social Security is facing some difficult financial issues in the not-too-distant future is getting a lot of media attention these days, likely because we’re approaching an election next year and – no surprise – election years have a way of encouraging politicians to abandon reality and make impossible promises. Such is the case in these times with most 2024 candidates already vowing to “not touch” Social Security, despite the fact that the program desperately needs reform. Case in point, this CBS News article by Aimee Picchi which explains that unless Social Security is reformed soon, benefits for the average couple will be cut by about $17,400 in 2033. Problem is, as the article says, opposing sides can’t agree on how to reform the program, with Democrats favoring higher taxes on American workers, while Republicans favor structural changes to deal with today’s much longer life expectancies. Where will it all end? That, of course, depends on Congress, but the media attention to the problem is welcome if only to encourage Congress to reach a compromise before everyone’s Social Security benefit is cut by 23%. Click here to read the CBS News article about looming cuts to Social Security.
As an example of the leading thoughts on reforming Social Security, the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC, Inc.) believes Social Security must be preserved and modernized. This can be achieved without tax increases by slight modifications to cost of living adjustments and payments to high income beneficiaries plus gradually increasing the full (but not early) retirement age. AMAC Action, AMAC’s advocacy arm, supports an increase in the threshold where benefits are taxed and then indexing for inflation, and calls for eliminating the reduction in people’s benefits for those choosing to work before full retirement age. AMAC is resolute in its mission that Social Security be preserved for current and successive generations and has gotten the attention of lawmakers in D.C., meeting with many congressional offices and staff over the past decade.