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The $150 Billion Question: How to Pay for a Permanent SGR Repeal
It is a rarity nowadays: Bipartisan and bicameral support for a substantive legislative reform. It currently exists for a temporary and possibly a permanent repeal of the unpopular Medicare sustainable growth rate, which threatened to impose a sharp decrease to…
Jobless Benefits Face Trouble in House
The Senate’s narrowly approved extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless “would be very difficult to pass in the House,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn told Newsmax on Tuesday. “Conservatives are not in favor of passing it, certainly not without offsets,” the…
Social Security must plan long-term for leaner future, IG says.
The Social Security Administration must lay out long-range plans to meet a mounting workload with tighter funding, the agency’s inspector general says in a newly released overview of pressing management challenges. As the number of applicants for retirement and disability benefits grows by…
Rep. Kevin Brady: Get Feds ‘Out of the Way’ to Help Jobless
Extending the emergency unemployment program won’t help out-of-work people find jobs; that will come only by “getting Washington out of the way” and tackling a “terrible tax code” and Obamacare, Texas Republican Rep. Kevin Brady said Tuesday. The chairman of the…
Editorial: Retirement crisis hitting country
The world has changed for people facing retirement, and not in a kind way. In a comprehensive look at what it calls a “global retirement crisis” facing workers of all ages, the Associated Press reported over the weekend that the…
Obama’s entitlement opportunity
Most Americans breathed a sigh of relief last month when Congress finally averted another shutdown of the U.S. government. But that limited, short-term victory for bipartisan compromise can’t erase the defining, long-term challenge of stemming the still-onrushing tide of federal…
Exposing The Social Security Solvency Hype
The Social Security Board of Trustees recently released its Annual Report to Congress on Social Security’s long-term finances. Minus the hype, the report is both significant and surprising. Here’s a Q&A on the latest findings. I keep hearing that Social Security is…
Social Security ‘bonus’ for married retirees
How married couples can get ‘a little extra’ from Social Security.A real-life case study illustrates three strategies for maximizing Social Security: Delay, file and suspend, and spouse-only payments. “My husband and I are definitely waiting until age 70 for Social Security,”…
How a ‘magic birthday’ could change your retirement
The new year brings a variety of changes and opportunities from Social Security, especially if you have a “Magic Birthday” in 2014. Read on to learn the impact on your pocketbook. Are you getting Social Security now? Everyone on Social Security…
Security Manager’s Journal: Target breach unleashes fresh scams
The recent Target breach has furnished scammers with fresh victims, tailor-made and prepped for information theft. I’ve seen several variations of Target-related scams at my company since the breach. For the most part, the scammers’ trick of using Target as their scapegoat has backfired,…