A Bold Plan to Strengthen and Improve Social Security?
Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, gives a favorable review to The Social Security 2100 Act sponsored by Rep. John Larson (D-CT). The Act would raise payroll taxes and the amount of income subject to payroll tax in order to fund more generous benefits. First, it guarantees a minimum benefit at 125 percent of the poverty level for anyone with 30 years of work history. Second, it contains a more favorable cost-of-living formula than is currently used. The third feature would increase average benefits around $400 per year. Baker acknowledges there is some opposition to this element, as the increase would go to middle-class and fairly affluent seniors as well as lower income seniors. Similarly the author notes opponents of hiking benefits point to new research from the Census Bureau that finds seniors are doing quite well. Read his entire article here.
The Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) has a plan to preserve and modernize Social Security without raising taxes. This can be achieved by making modest changes in cost of living adjustments and the retirement age. AMAC advocates for a bipartisan compromise, “The Social Security Guarantee Act,” taking selected portions of bills introduced by former Rep. Johnson (R-TX) and current Rep. Larson (D-CT) and merging them with the Association’s own well researched ideas. One component is Social Security PLUS, a new, voluntary plan that would allow all earners to have more income available at retirement. This component is intended to appeal especially to younger workers. AMAC is resolute in its mission that Social Security be preserved and modernized and has gotten the attention of lawmakers, meeting with a great many congressional offices and staff over the past several years. Read AMAC’s plan here.