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Changes Coming for Social Security & Medicare - Newsbreak
No matter how much politicians vow never to cut Social Security or Medicare, changes to both programs are inevitable in the not too distant future. It’s either reform these programs, or preside over dramatic automatic reductions in benefits for both programs when their financial reserves are depleted in the early 2030s. Political promises aside, neither program can continue to pay full benefits much longer unless the program is updated to deal with the realities of today’s changed demographics – and that is a fact, regardless of election season rhetoric vowing otherwise.
In this Beacon Newspapers article by Anna SeitzHannah Fingerhut appearing at Newsbreak, the author reveals how the American public feels about changing Social Security and Medicare – Americans are largely opposed to raising the retirement age to get full benefits, and largely in favor of simply “taxing the rich” to alleviate the funding shortfall. Only trouble is, simply making higher earners pay more Social Security tax doesn’t really solve the problem, it only kicks the insolvency can down the road a little further for some future Congress to deal with. And the longer the real problems are ignored, the more difficult it will be to restore these crucial programs to solvency for the long term. So what are the “real problems?” Well, pretty simple actually: life expectancy has increased dramatically so that people are now collecting benefits for decades, and the workforce which pays into Social Security and Medicare is shrinking in comparison to the ever increasing number of new beneficiaries. And unless serious reform is undertaken to resolve those issues, the ability of both programs to pay full benefits is in jeopardy.
For its part, the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) has been at the forefront trying to strengthen Social Security by developing and proposing its Social Security Guarantee which restores the program to solvency without raising payroll taxes. AMAC has been discussing and continues to discuss this common-sense solution with Congressional Representatives in its efforts to protect America’s senior citizens who rely on Social Security. To review AMAC’s Social Security Guarantee, click here.