The Clock is Ticking for Social Security and time is running out! - Epoch Times
“It has finally become clear that Congress has run out of easy options—and it never had many to begin with.” These are words from this excellent Epoch Times article by Jay Rogers, explaining that simply increasing taxes alone (as some in Congress seem to think) won’t solve Social Security’s looming financial crisis. Fact is, Congress has been kicking this Social Security issue down the road for decades, and good options to correct the problem have steadily faded away as each year has passed. Now, when we’re a mere six years away from Social Security being forced to make a severe cut in everyone’s benefit, there is no more road left to further kick the can! And that means hard choices now will need to be made, and soon, as explained in the Epoch Times article. Click here to read more.
While some other organizations only verbally lament this looming crisis, The Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) is actively engaged in providing Congress with ideas for a long-term solution. As an example of leading thinking on reforming Social Security, AMAC believes Social Security must be preserved and modernized to serve future generations. AMAC’s position is that this can be achieved without payroll tax increases through relatively minor program modifications, including changes to the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) process and modifications to the formulas for calculating initial benefits for higher-income beneficiaries. Changes to the age for maximizing benefits are included in AMAC’s position, along with (1) an increase in the thresholds where benefits are subject to income tax; (2) indexing of these thresholds annually to account for inflation; (3) changing the taxable maximum formula to address the unintended loss of revenue; (4) improving survivor benefits, (5) eliminating the reduction in benefits for those choosing to work before full retirement age; and (6) improving savings tools for future retirees, including a savings account that builds estate value. 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. See AMAC’s proposal for Social Security reform here.