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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…
Half Of America’s Seniors Have Dangerously Low Incomes, New Report Shows
Nearly half of the country’s senior citizens are economically vulnerable, a new report from the Economic Policy Institute finds.About 19.9 million, or 48 percent, of America’s seniors have incomes that are less than two times the supplemental poverty line, according to the report.…
Senators Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Reduce Overlapping Benefit Payments
U.S. Senators Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Angus King (I-ME), and Joe Manchin (D-WV) introduced the Reducing Overlapping Payments Act, which aims to protect the Social Security Disability Insurance and Unemployment Insurance programs by reducing overlapping benefits. Read…
Letter: Chained CPI must be opposed
We all need to act now because Congress and the Obama administration are talking about changing the measure of inflation for Social Security benefits by using what is called a chained Consumer Price Index. This chained CPI proposal significantly changes…
How Important is Social Security to Your Retirement Plans?
Social Security recipients will receive a 1.7% cost-of-livng increase to their benefits in 2013, but many are wondering if that will be enough if prices for essentials like food and gas continue to rise. Meanwhile, individuals approaching retirement age are…