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Congressional negotiators have struck a compromise on spending for Fiscal Year 2023, avoiding a government shutdown this Friday. The House and Senate are expected to pass a short-term extension by the end of this week, giving negotiators more time to finish a final funding package for the rest of the fiscal year. We spoke with NCPSSM legislative director Dan Adcock about the compromise deal.
Some of the nation’s leading Social Security experts gathered in Des Moines, IA on Wednesday to discuss the future of a program buffeted by serious financial and political challenges. The forum, Get Your Roadmap to Retirement, was presented by the Harkin Institute at Drake University and moderated by former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (who also chairs the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare advisory board). NCPSSM President and CEO Max Richtman was among the experts on the panel.
Fiscal conservatives continue to promote the narrative that Social Security and Medicare must be “reformed” to reduce the federal debt, which basically means cutting seniors' earned benefits. The latest foray in this propaganda campaign came in the form of an ‘analysis’ piece from Bloomberg’s Karl W. Smith, published last week in the Washington Post.
As the midterm campaign draws to a close with the future of Social Security and Medicare possibly at stake, NCPSSM has been completing its final round of candidate endorsement events around the country. Today in Charlotte, North Carolina, NCPSSM legislative director and PAC coordinator Dan Adcock formally endorsed Democrat Cheri Beasley for U.S. Senate in one of the pivotal swing state races of this election cycle.
It is no exaggeration to say that the nation's two most important programs for seniors—Social Security and Medicare—are on the line in this November's elections. This is not a matter of nuance; it's truly existential. Whichever party controls Congress will influence whether Social Security and Medicare will continue as we know them—or be weakened and privatized.
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare officially endorsed all 3 Democratic members of Nevada’s congressional delegation for re-election. During a virtual event on Thursday, NCPSSM President and CEO Max Richtman declared the organization’s support for Representatives Dina Titus, Steven Horsford, and Susie Lee as champions for seniors, with the three members participating live from Nevada.
The Social Security Administration SSA announced this morning that Social Security benefits will increase 8.7 % in 2023 --- the largest cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in four decades. On average, Social Security benefits will increase by more than $140 per month starting in January.
A bill to repeal two largely unpopular rules affecting some public sector workers’ ability to collect Social Security benefits was reported out of the House Ways & Means committee today. The Social Security Fairness Act was introduced by Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL), and currently has more than 290 cosponsors from both parties.
GOP members of the House Ways and Means Committee held an all-Republican roundtable on the future of the program on June 29. That’s a little like holding an all-Red Sox roundtable on the future of the Yankees. Republicans have spent four decades devising ways to undermine Social Security – including their triad of terrible ideas: raising the retirement age, means-testing benefits, and privatizing the program
Social Security’s trust fund received a one-year reprieve in the 2022 Social Security Trustees report, released late Thursday afternoon. The Trustees project that the combined disability and retirement trust fund will become depleted in 2035 – one year later than predicted last time – if Congress doesn’t take preventative action. When the trust fund becomes insolvent, the Trustees say, Social Security will only be able to pay 80% of scheduled benefits.
The takeaway from the latest Social Security Trustees report is this: Congress must strengthen the program’s finances without delay. The Trustees project that the combined Social Security retirement and disability trust fund will become depleted by 2035.
If you are represented by a Democrat in the U.S. House, chances are that your member of Congress has already cosponsored a piece of landmark legislation to boost and strengthen Social Security: Rep. John Larson’s Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust. In fact, the bill currently has 202 Democratic cosponsors (and zero Republicans). But some Democrats have not signed on as cosponsors.
On the surface, Social Security may not seem to be a relevant topic for Black History Month. But it is. Social Security has helped provide Americans with basic financial security for generations of retirees, the disabled and their families. It has been especially beneficial to Black Americans – whose average earnings and retirement savings are lower than their white counterparts’.
Social Security must be expanded and strengthened now. That was the message National Committee president Max Richtman delivered in testimony today before the House Ways and Means Social Security subcommittee, chaired by Rep. John Larson (D-CT). This was the first and possibly only hearing on Congressman Larson’s Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust legislation, which would boost benefits and extend the solvency of the program’s trust fund.
Some tropes never die. The one about Millennials not being able to rely on Social Security when they retire re-surfaces every few months, most recently in an article by John Csiszar on the financial news site GoBankingRates.
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare --- on behalf of its millions of members and supporters --- applauds Congressman John Larson for introducing his Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust Act today.
Americans who rely on Social Security can exhale for a moment now that the program’s Trustees have reported that the trust fund will remain solvent until 2034. That’s only one year earlier than projected in last year’s report. It is time to strengthen and expand the program.
One of our nation's most popular federal programs marks another year of success on August 14th. Social Security—the income security program for workers, retirees, people with disabilities, and their families - was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt 86 years ago. But it's been almost four decades since the program was last reformed. In 1983, Congress took action to shore up Social Security's finances under the acute threat of insolvency. Fast-forward to the present. We are confronted with a looming shortfall in the program's finances amid a growing demand to boost benefits. But bi-partisan action to strengthen Social Security has been elusive—despite the best efforts of some lawmakers to put forward solid proposals.
Next week, Social Security will mark its 86th anniversary of providing Americans with basic financial security in old age (and, since 1956, upon becoming disabled). And yet, quite incredibly, baseline Social Security benefits haven’t been expanded in fifty years – even though seniors’ living costs have soared over the decades. Congressman John Larson (D-CT) is once again hoping to change that. Larson, a true Social Security champion who introduced legislation to boost Social Security in previous Congresses, has now released the details of a revamped bill to increase benefits and extend the program’s solvency.
Wikimedia Commons Republicans are once again threatening to drag Social Security into the process of raising the federal debt limit.
Social Security advocates are relieved that President Biden has fired Trump’s SSA Commissioner, Andrew Saul – although he insists his dismissal
Members of Congress heard from some genuine experts on Social Security - older Americans who have to survive on their benefit
As Congress heads home for a three-week recess, the National Committee wants Senate and House members to remember that Social Security
Today is the day most millionaires stop paying into Social Security for the rest of the year, while most of us will continue
President Biden has inherited a Social Security program that is on a weaker footing than when Donald Trump took office.