Today’s Throwback Thursday is pretty simple: Social Security is YOUR money.
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![Earlier this week, Members of Congress and allies met to discuss Social Security and the GOP Congress’ manufactured crisis.
““Seniors, I stand with you all the way [on Social Security].”
- Rep. Jan Schakowsky
“We are in a crisis right now. A...](https://64.media.tumblr.com/93d9258801da499ce7712598d0be22b4/tumblr_njo11hjqsI1qd3gmvo1_1280.jpg)
Earlier this week, Members of Congress and allies met to discuss Social Security and the GOP Congress’ manufactured crisis.
“Seniors, I stand with you all the way [on Social Security].”
- Rep. Jan Schakowsky“We are in a crisis right now. A retirement crisis. Not a Social Security crisis.” - Rep. Jan Schakowsky
“Stop manufacturing a crisis with the Social Security disability trust fund.”
- Senator Bernie Sanders“This week anyone earning a million dollars a year will have paid 100% of their payroll taxes for 2015.”
- Max Richtman
Max Ritchman, President and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare: “America’s seniors understand all too well that our nation faces a retirement crisis and improving Social Security benefits is vital to keeping millions from poverty. Rep. Linda Sanchez’s ‘Strengthening Social Security Act’ makes several important improvements for seniors by: phasing out the payroll tax cap so that the wealthy pay their fair share, creating a Cost of Living adjustment for the elderly and boosting benefits for all retirees including widows/widowers. NCPSSM strongly supports this legislation and applauds Congresswoman Sanchez for doing the right thing for America’s seniors and their families.”
Related Reading:
The future of Social Security is shaping up to be a major contention in the 2016 presidential campaign and women, who depend more heavily on the system, have much at stake.
“Social Security is often women’s only asset,” said Sylvia Allegretto, a labor economist…
Eleanor’s Hope
To alleviate the retirement crisis, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare launched a national initiative in October to modernize the Social Security system. Called Eleanor’s Hope, in honor of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt who championed passage of the Social Security Act in 1935, the initiative takes a comprehensive long-range approach to reflect women’s contributions as breadwinners as well as family caregivers.
In addition to public retirement credits for people who take time off from paid employment to serve as family caregivers and for retirees who have worked in low-wage occupations, the plan also calls for strengthening the Social Security cost-of-living allowance and boosting benefits of all current and future beneficiaries.
via Womens E-News.
Related News:
To ease the retirement crisis, Social Security benefits must be strengthened rather than cut. For that reason, the National Committee has endorsed H. Res. 393, the resolution introduced by Representatives Jan Schakowsky, Doris Matsui and Patrick Murphy which supports boosting Social Security.
via NCPSSM.
For months, conservative think-tankers who undermine the value of Social
Security, deny the existence of a national retirement crisis and the
need to boost benefits have been banging their drum for benefit cuts
especially hard. Why? Because a scarcely reported CBO report on Social Security replacement rates
(now you see why we don’t usually share these kind of stories) claimed
Americans received more in benefits than previously believed or reported
by Social Security actuaries.
via Entitled to Know.
The conservative argument that the retirement crisis is a myth has been based on the notion that Americans actually will have far more in retirement resources than they recognize — particularly that Social Security benefits will amount to a much larger percentage of workers’ lifetime income than has been assumed. Ergo, there’s no need to expand Social Security to give retirees more.
via Los Angeles Times.
Further Reading:
American families know first-hand what this looming retirement crisis feels like. About half of households age 55 and older have no retirement savings and a third of current workers aged 55 to 64 are likely to be poor or near-poor in retirement.
via Entitled to Know.
Social Security is the most successful government program in our nation’s history. Before it was signed into law, nearly half of senior citizens lived in poverty. Today, the elderly poverty rate is less than 10 percent. Although still much too high, that’s a dramatic improvement.
via Charlotte Observer.
Related Reading:
- America’s Jump From Economic Crisis to Retirement Crisis.
- Rather than cutting vital programs like Social Security and Medicare to pay down a deficit these programs did not create, Washington should be looking for ways to address the retirement deficit head-on. Part of the solution includes raising Social Security benefits.
- Boosting Social Security Benefits.
- Social Security remains the only stable source of income for many
families who are still rebuilding after our nation’s recent brush with
economic collapse.
It’s no secret that American workers face a major retirement crisis. Wealth inequality and workplace changes mean more and more retirees have come to rely on Social Security for most of their income. But the average monthly Social Security benefit in Maryland is $1,472 — or roughly $18,000 per year, which is only slightly above the federal poverty line. And even with Social Security, some 7 percent of Maryland’s seniors live in poverty.
The good news is that Maryland workers can increase the size of their future Social Security checks by delaying retirement. Delayed claiming past the early retirement age of 62 results in bigger monthly benefit checks for life, and waiting until after the current full retirement age of 66 yields even greater gains — up to 44 percent more than early claiming.
But too few Marylanders are taking advantage of this “delay-and-gain” strategy, or are even aware of it. The average age for claiming Social Security in Maryland is 64 — two years older than the minimum, but early enough to be penalized with lower benefits, which are cut by roughly 6 percent for every year that they file for Social Security before the full retirement age.
Read our full op-ed by clicking here.
The next U.S. president and Congress will face a serious test: What to do, if anything, about the nation’s retirement crisis?
Americans aren’t saving nearly enough in their 401(k)s, while wide swaths of the workforce aren’t saving at all, because they don’t have access to a retirement plan. Social Security, meanwhile, faces a financial shortfall as the baby boomers enter retirement.
via Bloomberg.
Related Reading:
We agree, Congress should BOOST Social Security for all working Americans.
Do you agree? If you answered “yes”, then please sign our petition here.