Social Security Insolvency Nearing, but There is Still Time to Reform it. - National Taxpayers Union
In this very interesting and accurate article by David Timmons of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), the author discusses the recently released report from the Trustees of Social Security, providing an excellent outline of the problem and how it might be fixed. The article describes several popular reform proposals, including a recent bipartisan plan to use borrowed money invested in private equities to cover both short and long term shortfalls. That plan isn’t popular in general Congress so has little chance of actually becoming legislation but, nevertheless, it demonstrates that Congress is finally starting to think seriously about Social Security reform, in itself a very positive sign.
The article explains the consequences of Congressional inaction, and suggests that we do all possible to solve the problem without inflicting unnecessary pain on taxpayer or the U.S. economy. Click here to read the NTU article.
As an example of leading thinking on reforming Social Security, the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC, Inc.) believes Social Security must be preserved and modernized to serve future generations. AMAC’s position is that this can be achieved without payroll tax increases through relatively minor program modifications, including changes to the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) process and modifications to the formulas for calculating initial benefits for higher-income beneficiaries. Changes to the age for maximizing benefits are included in AMAC’s position, along with (1) an increase in the thresholds where benefits are subject to income tax; (2) indexing of these thresholds annually to account for inflation; (3) changing the taxable maximum formula to address the unintended loss of revenue; (4) improving survivor benefits, (5) eliminating the reduction in benefits for those choosing to work before full retirement age; and (6) improving savings tools for future retirees, including a savings account that builds estate value. 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. See AMAC’s proposal for Social Security reform here.