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Do Right by Social Security
By NCPSSM | August 12, 2008
Today’s Des Moines Register’s editorial on Social Security is our selection for a “Networthy Award” for outstanding coverage of elder issues on the net.
Entitled “Do Right by Shoring up Social Security” the Register gets it right. The editorial board writes:
More than 70 years later, the program (Social Security) doesn’t just help retirees. It also helps ensure their daughters and sons don’t have to financially support them. It assists the disabled and children who have lost a parent.
But it’s hard to believe such a program would be created today. We now live in a so-called ownership society, where individuals are expected to go it alone on everything from health care to saving for retirement. Politicians win elections by vowing to cut government-funded programs and the taxes needed to pay for them.
The options out there to improve Social Security’s long-term solvency aren’t drastic or complicated. The challenges the programs faces don’t even come close to the crisis rhetoric we’ve been hearing from the Bush administration and his anti-entitlement allies for years now as a way to scare Americans into believing privatization is the way to go. It’s time we set privatization politics aside. The Register urges presidential candidates McCain and Obama to lay their cards on the table:
The presidential candidates should discuss in detail their plans for shoring up the system. In general, John McCain has supported supplementing the system with personal accounts (which would not address the system’s financial problems and could make them worse) and vows to work for a bipartisan solution on its financing. Barack Obama has been more specific; he wants to increase the amount of earnings that will be taxed to finance the system.
We highly recommend you read the full Register article.
Topics: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
August 13th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
I read the Des Moines Register article you posted (August 12, 2008) about the Social Security fund. I was surprised to read that raising the cap on taxable income beyond the current amount ($102K) would delay projected deficits for 8 years. Eight years seems like a grossly understated period of delay.
About a year ago, I attended a meeting for Social Security advocates presented by Social Security and Medicare spokespersons. When questioned about raising the cap on taxable income, the spokespersons responded that lifting the cap would result in there being no deficit for the foreseeable future; in fact, the Social Security fund would realize huge surpluses.
My question: was the Des Moines Register statement regarding lifting the cap on taxable income really about raising the cap? If so, what is the projected amount of the cap that would stave off deficits for only 8 years?
- Sandra Susse
August 25th, 2008 at 2:46 am
Amazing. I like it. How long did you write it??