DOGE and Social Security Savings: Clarifying the Possibilities
The airwaves and wires are aflame with projections about the dollars that can be cut from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid spending through uncovering fraud, waste, and abuse. Recent DOGE estimates are that perhaps $700 billion in spending can be eliminated. Is that attainable? Maybe not, in the opinion of Forbes Senior Contributor Howard Gleckman.
In a post yesterday on forbes.com, Gleckman contends that achieving the $700 billion goal might require a combination of benefit cuts or a reduction in the anticipated spending reduction. He further suggests that the insistence that eliminating waste and fraud “will not hurt program participants” is also unlikely. Citing safeguards already built into Social Security’s operations, he suggests that “(s)tealing from Social Security is not easy” and noted that the notion that millions of beneficiaries over the age of 100 receiving payments has been widely debunked.
Achieving the savings in these areas sought by the DOGE effort is difficult, to be sure, but whatever degree of spending reductions is achievable would help address the long-term financial problems facing these areas. As most are aware, Social Security is facing insolvency in less than a decade, with the potential for a 20%- 25% across-the-board reduction in benefits a looming possibility. While the drumbeat continues to ramp up, many organizations are developing legislative roadmaps that could be followed to resolve the situation. Here’s one: The Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC, Inc.) believes Social Security must be preserved and modernized to meet the demands of 21st-century economics. AMAC’s position is that this can be achieved without payroll tax increases via slight program modifications, including cost of living adjustments and payments to high-income beneficiaries. AMAC also supports an increase in the thresholds where benefits are subject to income tax, along with indexing of these thresholds annually to account for inflation. The AMAC position also calls for eliminating the reduction in benefits for those choosing to work before full retirement age and advocates for improved savings tools for future retirees. 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.