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Deficits, Debt and how They Relate to Social Security – A Primer
Jeff Szymanski works in political communications at The Association of Mature American Citizens. He wrote this piece to explain the deficit, the debt, and federal spending in an easily understood way. The federal budget deficit (amount of overspending for one fiscal year) is predicted…
Social Security’s Future: Not the Program Grandpa Knew
That Social Security is unsustainable as we know it long-term is hardly news. Martin Feldstein’s opinion piece in MarketWatch explains how the increase in life expectancy, the decreased birth rate, and the payroll tax rate not having changed since 1983 have combined…
Social Security: A wildly successful antipoverty program. Can that continue?
By any calculation, Social Security’s role in greatly reducing poverty rates among America’s seniors cannot be disputed. David W. Rasmussen’s article notes that poverty rates among Americans aged 65+ were as high as 78% in 1939, down to 35% in 1959,…
The Drawbacks of Social Security Privatization
Privatization has been shown to save governments money in many instances. When it comes to Social Security, there have not been serious discussions on privatizing the program since about 2005. The idea does sound plausible on its face, as it would give workers more…
A novel thought: Cutting Social Security benefits a good thing?
Now before you jump to conclusions, take into consideration that the current Social Security benefit program is unsustainable, as reported in the latest Social Security Trustees’ Report release last June. And also keep in mind that it’s highly improbable that…
Immigration and Social Security
The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) recently released the results of its study on immigration and its potential influence on the Social Security solvency dilemma. Calling “increased immigration a powerful policy tool in the effort to maintain the Social Security program,” BPC authors…
A Time for Thanks, and a Time for Safety
Since 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving Day to be a national holiday, families have gathered on that holiday to express gratitude for the blessings they’ve received. Lincoln’s proclamation set the day for observation as the last Thursday of the month,…
Social Security: Thinking About Filing?
Every day, thousands and thousands of Americans reach that point where they are eligible for Social Security retirement benefits, either at the earliest possible age (62) or their full retirement age (generally 66 or 67, depending on birth date). Arrival…
A High-Level Look at Social Security’s Health
Jeremy Glaser (Morningstar Senior Director, Editorial), discusses a variety of issues associated with Social Security in an interview with Tim Steffen Baird’s Director of Advanced Planning on www.morningstar.com. The first part of the interview deals with the Medicare hold harmless provision and its…
The National Debt Crisis. Hard Rain Ahead.
Just five years from now, the U.S. will pay more to service its national debt than it spends on national defense, according to Congressional Budget Office projections. In the words of Ben Shapiro, editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire, “there will be fiscal…