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US on pace for lowest budget deficit in five years, CBO reports
The Congressional Budget Office forecasts the annual deficit will be $670 billion when the budget ends Sept. 30, far below last year’s $109 billion. This marks the first years since 2008 the gap between spending and revenues has been below…
Baby Boomers’ Parents Would Envy Their Retirements
Helaine Olen does a lot of good exposing the dark side of the finance industry in her bookPound Foolish, but I can’t get on board with this statement she made in a recent article: “For the first time in living memory, it…
Expert: Taxation of retirement income in need of reform
Although planning for a comfortable retirement is a mainstay of public discussion, far less attention has been paid to the tax consequences of generating retirement income, says a University of Illinois expert on taxation and retirement benefits. According to law professor…
Social Security Announces You Must Live In A Marriage Equality State To Collect Benefits – For Now
Saying they ”appreciate the public’s patience as we work through the legal issues to ensure that our policy is legally sound and clear,” the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Carolyn Colvin, announced the agency has begun processing claims from same-sex…
University of California Study: National Debt Is Really $70 Trillion
James Hamilton, an economics professor at the University of California, San Diego, just published his best estimate of the federal government’s “off-balance-sheet” liabilities,in which he concludes that the real national debt, popularly estimated to be $16.9 trillion, is in fact more than…
Social Security to only recognize gay married couples in states where gay marriage is legal
Reporter Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed reports that at this time Social Security will only give benefits to same-sex married spouses who live in states where gay marriage is legal. Geidner writes: The decision means claims from same-sex couples married where such couples can legally marry but…
Marshall and Amodei at odds over entitlementsMarshall and Amodei at odds over entitlements
Democrat Kate Marshall met with about two dozen senior citizens and political activists at a Sparks home Monday night, where she vocalized her position on proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare just weeks before voters head to polling stations…
Three in Four US Workers Insured for Social Security Disability …
About three in four U.S. workers, or 76 percent, were insured for Social Security disability benefits in 2012, highlighting the importance of understanding the role of work history, according to Allsup, which has helped tens of thousands of people to receive…
Tea party fights ‘socialism’ against weak opposition
The political battles over the role of government continue. The U.S. House of Representatives, where conservative Republicans set the agenda, voted for a farm bill that dropped the food stamp program. And the House voted for the 40th time to repeal the…
The budget is still the GOP’s signature hit on President Obama
GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is nothing if not persistent. And it’s always the same issue with the same motive. The issue is the budget. And to hear McConnell and the GOP leaders tell it, President Barack Obama’s alleged penchant…