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Deficits due to begin with Social Security in 2019
This year is widely believed to be the year we turn the corner and that Social Security will pay out more to beneficiaries than it collects in revenue, most of which comes from current workers with the payroll tax. Deficits will get worse each year until all the past reserves (surpluses) that are keeping current benefits from being cut will be exhausted by 2034, according to the Social Security Trustees. As Sean Williams writes, there are no shortage of reform proposals in Congress. Few ever advance, however. Fixing Social Security boils down to the basics of either raising revenue or reducing expenditures. Democrats prefer the former, and Republicans favor the latter. Read full piece here.
The Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) has a different approach, making modest changes in cost of living adjustments and the retirement age, without additional tax increases on workers. AMAC advocates for a bipartisan compromise, “The Social Security Guarantee Act,” taking selected portions of bills introduced by former Rep. Johnson (R-TX) and Rep. Larson (D-CT) and merging them with the Association’s own well researched ideas. One component is Social Security PLUS, a new yet voluntary early retirement plan that would allow all earners to have more income available at retirement. This component is intended to appeal especially to younger workers. AMAC is resolute in its mission that Social Security be preserved and modernized and has gotten the attention of lawmakers in DC, meeting with a great many congressional offices and their legislative staffs over the past several years. Read AMAC’s plan here.