Economist Predicts How a President Harris Would Handle Social Security Reform - AMAC & Yahoo Finance
Over 70 million people receive Social Security benefits. Angela Mae of Yahoo Finance asked Professor Dennis Shirshikov of City University of New York for his predictions on how Kamala Harris is likely to handle the impending insolvency of the program, should she win the presidency. He believes there will be a new rate cap to replace the current $168,600 max in taxable wages. Shirshikov also predicts more generous COLAs based on a new formula for lower income beneficiaries and slightly less generous benefits for the highest earners. Lastly, reforms could include gradual adjustments to the current retirement age and/or diversification of how Social Security funds are invested. Full piece here.
As an example of the leading thoughts on reforming Social Security, the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC, Inc.) believes Social Security must be preserved and modernized. This can be achieved without tax increases by slight modifications to cost of living adjustments and payments to high income beneficiaries plus gradually increasing the full (but not early) retirement age. AMAC Action, AMAC’s advocacy arm, supports an increase in the threshold where benefits are taxed and then indexing for inflation, and calls for eliminating the reduction in people’s benefits for those choosing to work before full retirement age. AMAC is resolute in its mission that Social Security be preserved for current and successive generations and has gotten the attention of lawmakers in D.C., meeting with many congressional offices and staff over the past decade.