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About Social Security Solvency - Forbes
According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), election year promises “not to touch Social Security” are hollow pledges. The CRFB says “While this pledge is framed as ‘protecting benefits,’ it is – in reality – an implicit endorsement of a 23% across-the-board benefit cut in 2033, when the Social Security retirement fund becomes insolvent.”
The fact is, Social Security is facing a very tenuous financial future which, without attention, will result in dire consequences for American seniors. Sadly, Congress has been kicking this can down the road for decades since, as early as the 1980s, the Trustees have warned Congress that Social Security cannot sustain benefits indefinitely as the program is structured. Nevertheless, legislators have failed to act. Now, the issue is on the near horizon, and a devastating near-term cut in benefits would throw many back into poverty or, at minimum, severely curtail their ability to make financial ends meet. Yet Congress still offers little more than election year rhetoric, as explained in this Forbes article by John Wasik.
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.