April 2012
22 posts
Paul Ryan & Social Security
Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity has been intentionally vague on his plans for Social Security, but Jonathon Chait’s profile of the new standard-bearer for the Republican party reminds us where he stands.
In 2005, when Bush campaigned to introduce private accounts into Social Security, Ryan fervently crusaded for the concept. He was the sponsor in the House of a bill to create new...
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Mark Miller debunks some Social Security myths:
This year’s news is not about our aging population.
The accelerated [Social Security Trust Fund] exhaustion date stems from two factors: a 1.6 percent drop in taxable earnings due to the ongoing depressed economy, and a 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment awarded for this year.
Read the whole article, via Yahoo! News, here.
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Center on Budget and Policy Priorities takes a look at the historical fluctuations of the Trustees Report. Although it changes each year based on changing demographic and economic assumptions, the Trustees Report generally falls within a predictable range. The expiration of the combined Trust Fund of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance has fallen within 2036 and 2041 over...
More on the zombie Bowles-Simpson. Don’t worry, we’re working on a graphic for this.
There’s lots not to like in Simpson-Bowles, which marches under the banner of “shared sacrifice” at a time when 1 percent of the population is capturing 93 percent of the rewards of growth while paying the lowest tax rates in living memory.
But the horror is less the bad terms of...
Coursera, which provides free online courses from several leading universities, is offering a new class on Health Policy and the Affordable Care Act. The class, taught by Ezekiel Emanuel, covers the problems of the health care system and the ways that the Affordable Care Act will impact the system.
Emanuel has some pretty hefty credentials: a breast oncologist with a PhD in political philosophy,...
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Citizens don’t get to vote on austerity plans.
This time [Congress is] going to try to get this austerity plan through when few are paying attention: after the election but before the newly elected Congress comes in. This way democracy won’t get in the way, and the public doesn’t get a chance to react and hold legislators accountable. This might sound rather like the Greek...
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The most important take-away points from the 2012 Trustees Report will be that Social Security has a large and growing surplus; that without any Congressional action, Social Security will continue to pay benefits to America’s eligible working families for decades; and that with modest legislated increases in revenue, it will continue to pay those benefits for the next century and beyond.
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Social Security News
How the Media Has Shaped the Social Security Debate. Trudy Lieberman. Columbia Journalism Review.
Social Security is the one issue on which the electorate is not divided. Gallup polls dating back six decades consistently show some 70 percent of the public strongly supports Social Security. Most Washington opinion makers think otherwise, though. Indeed, listening to the politicians and policy...
Social Security is the one issue on which the electorate is not divided. Gallup polls dating back six decades consistently show some 70 percent of the public strongly supports Social Security. Most Washington opinion makers think otherwise, though. Indeed, listening to the politicians and policy gurus, one would conclude that this most basic of retirement programs for nearly all Americans is in...
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