The So-called Social Security “Apocalypse” - FOX29
“Apocalypse” and “Doomsday” are words which have been used to describe Social Security’s looming financial issue, but both words are not an accurate way to described the problem. According to this FOX29 article by Heather Miller, it would be more accurate to say that “Social Security has a billionaire problem.” By that the author means that while Social Security cannot go broke, recent income growth beyond Social Security’s payroll tax cap leaves an extraordinary amount of American income free of the burden of paying into Social Security. That’s a subtle way of saying that a good solution is to raise the FICA and SECA tax limitations as a way to improve Social Security’s financial outlook – in other words, workers pay more into Social Security to allow it to keep paying full benefits. Cooler heads suggest that perhaps tackling the longevity problem should be a consideration as well, since most retirees are now collecting benefits for multiple decades due to steadily increasing average life expectancy. As the FOX29 article points out, ultimately the solution will likely be a combination of raising revenue and cutting expenses. Click here to read about Social Security’s “billionaire problem.”
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.