Retirement, Social Security and long-term care:
Amid doubts about the soundness of the Social Security system, most Americans reject the idea of reducing benefits for future retirees. When asked to think about the long-term future of Social Security, only 25% say some reductions in benefits for future retirees will need to be made, while 74% say benefits should not be reduced in any way.
via Pew Research.
Related Reading:
Legislation wending its way through Congress and a recent Government Accountability Office report may lead the way to boosting Social Security benefits for America’s poorest retirees.
The mechanism: adjusting the formula for Social Security’s annual Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLA) from the current system to one based on how Americans 62 and older really spend their money.
On the legislative front, Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, along with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Sen. Chris van Hollen (D-Md.) have introduced “Social Security 2100” with such a provision. It has attracted more than 200 Democratic co-sponsors in the House. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also reintroduced his “Social Security Expansion Act” along with Democratic Senators running for president Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Kamala Harris of California plus Sen. Jeff Merkley of (D-Oreg.) Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Oreg.) is bringing the proposal to the House. The bills haven’t attracted support from Republicans.
via Next Avenue.
Related Reading:
Strengthen the existing safety net. Senior poverty would be much worse without Social Security, the Supplemental Security Income program, and Medicare and Medicaid. These programs are almost single-handedly responsible for reducing the official measure of senior poverty from 35 percent in 1960 to 9 percent today. But seniors today are rapidly losing ground. Proposals to cut Social Security benefits, increase Medicare cost-sharing for beneficiaries, or limit Medicaid coverage should all be rejected. Instead lawmakers must advance proposals to ensure that these benefits meet the growing need.
via Talk Poverty.
Boost Social Security Benefit:To the editor: Beginning May 21, 1981, President Reagan penned a series of letters to congressional leaders and members of the National Commission on Social Security Reform urging passage of legislation preserving Social Security for current recipients, and future generations. In one letter, he warns “There has been a great deal of misinformation and, for that matter, pure demagoguery on the subject of social security.” Thirty-three years later, that misinformation continues, aided, in part, by the contribution by Pete Peterson of $1 billion towards the destruction of the Social Security program; and by those who call for cuts in benefits or privatization.
Defying purveyors of misinformation, the 1983 Amendment is credited with leading to the current $2.6 trillion surplus in the Social Security Trust Fund.
Social Security does not contribute to the national deficit, nor the national debt; administrative costs approximate one percent; is prohibited from borrowing; is financed by those who get direct, guaranteed benefits; and any funds borrowed must be repaid with interest.
A boost in Social Security benefits is warranted: The annual cost-of-living allowance has not kept pace with inflation; average monthly benefits equal a person working at minimum wage. At current benefit levels, Social Security spending by recipients adds $775 billion per year to the nation’s economy. Boosting benefits translates to boosting our economy.
Bills in Congress would raise monthly benefits $70 per month, welcome news to the 58 million beneficiaries of the earned-benefit, anti-poverty insurance program known as Social Security. Learn more at www.boostsocialsecuritynow.org.
Bob Perry
Strafford
Letter to the Editor via Fosters.com.
Today’s Throwback Thursday is simple:
Congress,
BOOST Social Security benefits.
DON’T cut them.
Working to protect and expand Social Security is just smart, all the way around. It’s fair, it’s just and it’s popular.
An idea that was once well outside the boundaries of acceptable discourse gains more traction.
This is a growing movement. Congress needs to BOOST Social Security now.
PETERBOROUGH — Select Board members have unanimously endorsed a resolution calling on Congress to increase Social Security payments immediately.
This is a growing movement! Local community leaders are signing our Proclamation in support of BOOSTING Social Security benefits for American workers.
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. Yet rather than address this retirement crisis head-on, we have wasted years of political energy focused on cutting benefits to pay down the deficit rather than strengthening the Social Security program – until now.
The “Strengthen Social Security Act of 2013” gets rid of this loophole, boosts benefits, and would extend the solvency of Social Security by almost two additional decades, until 2049.
