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Judges sue Social Security over case ‘quotas’
WASHINGTON—Judges struggling to handle a surge of disability cases sometimes award benefits they might otherwise deny in order to clear cases faster so they can meet quotas imposed by the Social Security Administration, according to a lawsuit filed by the…
Will Obama’s Chained CPI Help Keep Inflation From Eating Into Your Savings?
This week we examine ways in which inflation nibbles away at your retirement income, especially in light of the President’s proposal for Chained CPI adjustments to Social Security. The formal title is Chain-weighted Consumer Price Index and it’s a variation of how the government…
Why the ‘Spreadsheet Scandal’ Should Kill Obama’s Social Security Cut
A recent “Spreadsheet Scandal” has rocked the economics world. It also seems to have eliminated the last remaining technical argument in support of the president’s “chained CPI” Social Security cut. Not weakened it. Eliminated it. I believe the president proposed the chained CPI in…
Hit to Social Security benefits of using chained CPI? Average of $30/month, says CBO
f you’ve been wondering what using the so-called “chained CPI” would do to Social Security benefits, the Congressional Budget Office has an answer for you: they’d be about $30 a month lower, on average, by 2023. That’s if the chained CPI…
How would ‘Chained CPI’ affect your benefits?
A House Ways and Means subcommittee on Wednesday held a hearing to examine the impacts of using “Chained CPI” to slow the growth in entitlement spending and increase tax revenue. President Obama has put Chained CPI on the table as part of his proposal…
Don’t Raise or Eliminate the Cap
Under Roosevelt’s original design for Social Security, high earners wouldn’t even have participated. The eventual legislation included the rich, but with a contribution cap to distinguish Social Security from “the dole.” As a Social Security Administration report put it, “The upper limit on the tax…
Immigration Reform Could Help Fix Country’s Social Security Problem: Study
As politicians grapple with the best way to deal with the soaring costs of Social Security, they might be interested to find out that pursuing comprehensive immigration reform could do a lot to solve the problem. Keeping the nation’s current immigration…
House Panels Kick Off Hearings On Slowing Medicare, Social Security Spending
Among the proposals that will be discussed and debated are increasing Medicare premiums for higher-income seniors and raising the program’s eligibility age. Meanwhile, Politico details the health industry gains and losses likely to stem from President Barack Obama’s budget plan, which…
Obama budget plan revisits small-bore budget cuts that have proven difficult to pass
Even as it adds fuel to battles over taxes and Social Security, President Barack Obama’s budget will reprise lots of smaller bore proposals that have gone nowhere in a gridlocked Washington. Ideas like higher Transportation Security Administration fees on airline tickets,…
Obama may be courting disaster by offering budget cuts
President Barack Obama’s budget overtures to Republicans may limit his bargaining power if the GOP ever returns to the negotiating table on a grand deficit-reduction deal. In essence, Obama’s spending blueprint is a final offer, a no-budge budget whose central elements…