Headlines
About Raising Social Security’s Full Retirement Age
Fear of being labeled as trying to “cut” Social Security benefits (thus “throwing grandma off the cliff” as some on the left would say), means many in Congress don’t even want to talk about Social Security reform. Case in point:…
Next Year’s COLA? Likely to Disappoint
The media were all agog when the 2023 Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) was announced last fall. After all, the 8.7% COLA increase was historic – an increase at a level not seen in over 4 decades. Of course, the…
Warshawsky on the Social Security Expansion Act
American Enterprise Institute Searle Fellow Mark J. Warshawsky, in an OpEd piece published on thehill.com, dissects the Social Security Expansion Act bill (S. 393) proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) and endorsed by nine fellow Democrats, calling it a flawed proposal that…
A Political Assessment of Social Security Reform’s Headwinds
It’s been a long time coming, and now we’re within a decade of the catastrophe known as Social Security insolvency. And just to head the rumor off fast, that doesn’t mean bankruptcy for one of America’s most successful social programs…
An Argument for Uncapping the Maximum Taxable Earnings
Social Security’s looming solvency problem is, as expected, creating a groundswell of attention publicly these days, as well as an increasing focus in the 118th Congress. As a result of this heightened interest, we’re seeing a growing number of articles…
Bipartisan Group Advocates for Language to Encourage Deferred Filing
In a letter to the Social Security Administration (SSA), a group of U.S. Senators is recommending several terminology changes aimed at promoting the advantages of waiting to claim retirement benefits. Specifically, the group is advocating for more descriptive labeling for…
Social Security and the Federal Debt: An Editorial Opinion
Much has been written about Social Security’s trajectory toward insolvency, along with many accounts of pathways to be explored to head off the catastrophe awaiting America’s seniors. Unfortunately, many of the news accounts have complicated the overall issue by insinuating…
A debt limit escape hatch for Social Security? Yes.
Regarding the D.C. talk of debt limits and default, David Lerman of Roll Call explains a 1996 law that provides an escape clause from the debt limit that allows the Treasury Department to pay Social Security and Medicare benefits, even…
Could a Sovereign Wealth Fund Be the Grand Bargain for Social Security?
Jason Lalljee writes here that as senators grapple with trying to add 75 years of solvency to Social Security, the idea of a sovereign wealth fund has come up. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said this week that such a fund…
Bipartisan discussions on raising Social Security full retirement age
We’re living 20 years longer than when Social Security was enacted in 1935, yet the full retirement age was only ever increased once, in 1983, and by a scant two years. Now, Sen. Angus King (I-ME) and Sen. Bill Cassidy…