Social Justice

On Face the Nation this Sunday, Sen. Mark Warner was asked by host Bob Schieffer why his ‘Gang of Six’ would take on Social Security reform in their forthcoming budget proposal. His response reflected a commonly-held myth about Social Security’s history that greatly exaggerates the changes in the worker-to-retiree ratio between 1950 and today.

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When Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) called for "raising the cap" on Social Security's taxable wage base at a "Back Off Social Security" rally and press conference a week ago, he elicited roars of approval and chants of "raise the cap" from the hundreds-strong crowd. But if, as Sen. more »

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"You've got a country that is stupid, a government that is stupid," Fiscal Commission Co-Chair and Fmr. GOP Senator Alan Simpson said, in an interview on CNN this past Monday morning. His words sum up the feelings of a band of elitist budget hawks, who blame ordinary Americans for our current economic and budgetary problems. Call it the real "Blame America First" crowd.

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Call it speaking untruth to power. In the article, “Democrats Deny Social Security’s Red Ink,” FactCheck is guilty of distorting the truth, and the politicians it criticizes get it right. Click here for a chart comparing the article’s claims with the truth, and a graph showing Social Security’s surplus. Click here, here and here for more comprehensive takedowns of the article.

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We should all thank the President for refusing to include Social Security cuts in his 2012 budget. But we should not take the President’s decision for granted. Apparently, the White House was prepared to include specific cuts in Social Security benefits in the 2012 budget just to bring Republicans to the table, but a groundswell of progressive opposition helped stop it in its tracks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The lesson is clear: What we are doing is working. But we are still facing a real threat to Social Security, and a White House whose idea of negotiating is conceding in advance to Republican demands. We must temper our praise for the president now with vigilance for the future. Cuts are not yet dead; we need to keep up the pressure.

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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.

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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.

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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 »

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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 »

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