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Understanding the need for full employment
The Social Security Trust Fund report has been released. One of its more telling charts was of the trend in Social Security revenue. Social Security revenue comes from a tax on the wages of earners, paid by both employees and…
Obama loses key support for cutting Social Security, Medicare in “Grand Bargain”
A Quick Hits post on benefit cuts: I alluded to this news earlier, but wanted to bring it to you directly. President Obama may have just lost his battle to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits as part of…
Four Ways The Federal Government Is Needlessly Putting Your Identity At Risk
The headline is not hyperbolic (although I truly wish it were.) Every day two branches of the U.S. government—the executive and the legislative—are needlessly putting our identities and financial lives at risk. How? By mismanaging the way they handle our Social Security…
Retirement savings: Why $1M may not be enough
One million dollars in retirement savings sounds like a lot, but financial experts warn that even a seven-figure nest egg may not be enough for the average couple. So how much is enough — and how can you get it? For bare-minimum saving,…
First Person: The Average U.S. Retirement Age Is Rising, and So Are Ours
A recent CNBC article noted that, “The average U.S. retirement age has climbed to 61, up from 57 two decades ago, and it’s likely to age higher, according to Gallup’s Economy and Personal Finance survey. It went on to state, “The average…
Disability Explosion Puts Social Security In Danger
After years of ignoring increasingly dire warnings, America is now facing a debilitating disability crisis — one draining tax dollars (and workers) from our economy.Yet rather than reforming our broken entitlement programs, policymakers continue turning a blind eye to the…
What’s Next for Social Security?
In the deficit-obsessed, anti-tax world of Washington, closing the shortfall in Social Security has come to mean broadly cutting benefits. That would be a mistake. Targeted cuts — like lower payouts for upper-income recipients who live longer and draw larger…
Replace Social Security with personal retirement accounts
The annual Trustees Report for Social Security has just been issued and the news is that there is no news. Social Security is on its way over a fiscal cliff – just as we hear every year when the report…
Everyone Deserves to Retire in Dignity: Let’s Strengthen Social Security and Medicare
Here’s a stat that might surprise you: Nearly half of our nation’s 41 million seniors are economically vulnerable, meaning their income is less than two times the supplemental poverty threshold. Benefit cuts to Social Security and Medicare would severely impact these seniors’…
Want to Fix Social Security? Use the Right Wrench
SOCIAL SECURITY is expected to run out of reserves by 2033 — a mere 20 years from now. With the public apparently opposed both to tax increases and to benefit cuts, the main politically feasible way to avoid such a fate…