Blogs: Real Security

In yet another sign that the White House has taken to championing Social Security, the new budget would add $1 billion in funding for the Social Security Administration to help reduce Social Security’s disability claims backlog.

More »»

A few months ago, when Fiscal Commission Co-Chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson released their Social Security proposal, even their worst critics conceded that the plan would improve benefits for the very poorest. According to a new analysis by the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration, however, that just isn't true. The Bowles-Simpson proposal would reduce benefits by as much as $1,107 (16%) for 60% of “Very Low” earners, those workers with average annual earnings of around $10,800. Click here to see a graph of the benefit cuts prepared by Social Security Works, or check it out below.

More »»

Whatever you may think of him, you've got to give Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) credit. He said he would present his own budget, and now he's done it. He's even taken to the pages of The Wall Street Journal to defend it, and challenge Republicans and Democrats to: find other places in the budget where cuts can be made, to replace particular programs; consider whether it is worth "borrowing billions from foreign nations," to fund programs "that could be administered better at the state and local level, or even taken over by the private sector."

Paul's challenge underscores the dishonesty of his budget, as well as those proposed by other conservatives. Paul and other conservatives wear their proposed budget as badges of honor, but they lack the courage to state clearly the human impact of their budget cuts, and the candor to confess the unreality of their proposals.

More »»

One of the lesser known, but most devastating Social Security cuts being discussed in Beltway circles is the adoption of a new, less generous version of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for calculating the yearly cost-of-living adjustment (aka COLA) in Social Security benefits. It is called the “Chained”-CPI, which is fitting, because it will chain you to your parents when they have to move in with you for their golden years. Most importantly, it is the only proposed benefit cut that will whack current and future retirees.

When advocates challenge the new formula though, the conservatives and pseudo-Democrats hawking this proposal are no longer even bothering to defend the “Chained” CPI on its merits. (In fact, the current CPI is, if anything, too modest.) They simply coo at how brilliant and “exciting” of a new policy tool it is. Maya MacGuineas’s cheerful performance at a Senate briefing this morning was a case in point. more »

More »»

Progressives really owe Third Way a debt of gratitude. Finally, some austerity hawks that come clean about the true intentions of their proposals to cut Social Security. Unlike Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, who were shamed into insisting that their proposed cuts were only for the purpose of “strengthening Social Security,” in Third Way's report, "Saving Social Security,"Jim Kessler and David Kendall effectively admit that cutting Social Security should be a part of deficit reduction. more »

More »»

One of the persistent myths about Social Security is that benefit cuts could be done in a way that would only affect the richest Americans. So let us clarify the issue for those who are confused. Cuts that would have any meaningful impact on Social Security’s finances will necessarily fall on the middle class. Period.

Even if we were prepared to endure the damage that cuts for the rich would wreak on the program, doing so would not shore up Social Security’s finances. There is not enough money in the Social Security checks of the richest men in the country to buy the government an armored Humvee, let alone fill Social Security’s $700 billion shortfall.

More »»

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s appearance on Meet the Press this Sunday was a rare positive moment in a very bad couple of months for Social Security advocates. Reid, who is not known for his gifted oratory, gave the most cogent rebuttal of calls to cut Social Security of any elected official in recent memory. With Democrats out of power in the House, and Obama poised to make Social Security cuts part of a “bipartisan deficit reduction package” ahead of the debt-ceiling debate, Harry Reid may be the only man standing in the way of disaster for America’s favorite government program. Take a look at the full transcript of his remarks below, or click here for a clip of the exchange. more »

More »»

Some on the left agree that the payroll tax cut is likely to be extended, but see nothing wrong with decoupling Social Security from payroll taxes, and making it at least partly dependent on revenue from the general fund.

This argument has merit, but are the potential benefits of making Social Security a standard budget item worth risking the whole program? Social Security is an independent program that has survived largely unchanged for 75 years, but making it depend on general fund revenue puts it at the whims of Washington politicians.

More »»

We already know the proposed $120 billion payroll tax cut in President Obama's deal with the Republicans poses tremendous risks to Social Security. Now, an analysis done by Nancy Altman, Co-Director of Social Security Works, reveals that it is altogether bad policy. The payroll tax cut would provide far more to Wall Street bankers and members of Congress than poor and middle class workers, who need the help more and are more likely to stimulate the economy with the money they receive.

More »»

The Fiscal Commission released its final report today, and it has once again been caught loading the dice. The Social Security cuts that the Commission unveiled are virtually indistinguishable from the Co-Chairs’ initial proposal a few weeks ago—save for one clever new distortion. The Commission is now vastly inflating the effects of its “hardship exemption” to the increased retirement age for workers in physically demanding jobs, in order to whitewash the cuts its plan would inflict on the working poor.

More »»