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Social Security Trustees – who is overseeing this important program?
This year’s Social Security and Medicare reports found both programs in deteriorating health. The insolvency date for Medicare is 2026 and 2034 for Social Security. But in 2018, for the first time in 36 years, Social Security’s expenditures will exceed its annual income, meaning reserves must be tapped to pay benefits. It may seem a bit alarming then that key posts overseeing the financial health of both programs have been vacant for more than three years, leaving them without independent accountability in the face of dire predictions about approaching insolvency. The public trustees, which require Senate confirmation, are usually economists or retirement experts, with one coming from each political party. They join four other trustees who are senior political appointees – the secretaries of the Treasury, Health and Human Services and Labor departments and the Social Security commissioner. Together the six oversee annual financial reports and certify that the estimates are sound and unbiased. Read more here from Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar’s piece here.
The Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) advocates for a strengthening of Social Security and has developed a bipartisan compromise bill, titled “The Social Security Guarantee Act,” taking selected portions of bills introduced by Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX) and Rep. John Larson (D-CT) and merging them with the Association’s original legislative framework to create the new Act. AMAC is resolute in its mission to get the attention of lawmakers in DC, meeting with a great many congressional offices and their legislative staffs over the past several years. Learn more about AMAC’s Social Security Guarantee here…