About Fixing Social Security’s Finances - InvestmentNews
More and more organizations are sounding the alarm – an alarm that the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) has been sounding for years – that Congress must act soon to fix Social Security’s looming financial issues. This InvestmentNews article by Leo Almazora reports that a policy think tank called the Conference Board has joined the voices calling upon Congress to reform Social Security. The program’s future is at stake and among the Conference Board’s suggestions are raising the retirement age, implementing means testing for high-income beneficiaries, and increasing the taxable income cap. A stunning revelation is noted: Social Security’s “program’s costs have surpassed its payroll tax revenues since 2010, leading to a slow depletion of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund’s reserves.” Depletion of the Trust Fund by 2033 means a 23% cut for everyone, as discussed in the InvestmentNews article here.
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 raising the thresholds at which 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.