Social Security

Is Social Security a ‘Good Investment’?

By Michael Rainey

Social Security is a pay-as-you-go social insurance program, not an investment fund, but Monique Morrissey of the Economic Policy Institute says that its return on contributions is actually quite...
Paul Ryan's Fiscal Legacy: Lots of Red Ink

By Yuval Rosenberg

House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Wednesday that he won’t seek re-election this year and will retire at the end of his term in January, becoming the most prominent in a wave of Republican lawmakers...
Yellen, Democratic Economists Say Fixing Debt Crisis Isn’t All About Entitlements

By Yuval Rosenberg

Late last month, a quintet of big-name Hoover Institution economists warned in a Washington Post op-ed that a coming “string of perpetually rising trillion-dollar-plus deficits” could soon lead to a...
Which Americans Worry Most About Social Security?

By Yuval Rosenberg

Maybe call it social insecurity? Just over half of American adults between the ages of 50 and 64 say they worry a “great deal” about the Social Security system, according to recent polling by Gallup...
The Old Will Outnumber the Young in the US by 2035

By The Fiscal Times Staff

By 2030, all Baby Boomers will be older than 65, meaning that one in five U.S. residents will be of retirement age, the Census Bureau reports . And by 2035, seniors will outnumber children for the...

The $82 Trillion Problem Washington Has Stopped Talking About

By Yuval Rosenberg

Now that “the anti-deficit hysteria of the Great Recession has given way to a backlash of complacency,” lawmakers and the public are ignoring “an $82 trillion avalanche of Social Security and...
New Budget Projections Show a Rising Tide of Red Ink Ahead

By Michael Rainey

The Congressional Budget Office won’t release new budget projections that include the effects of the President Trump’s tax overhaul until April, but on Friday the deficit hawks at the Committee for a...
Why Trump’s Immigration Plan Could Hurt Social Security

By Michael Rainey

Economists have warned that the Trump administration’s plan to reduce immigration and deport thousands of unauthorized immigrants could impose significant costs in terms of lower growth and lost...
How Trump’s Budget Would Cut the Social Safety Net

By Yuval Rosenberg

As a candidate, President Trump said he would not cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. But his 2019 budget proposal seeks to reduce spending on all three programs and other parts of the social...
Why This Is a Bad Time to Turn a Blind Eye to the Deficit

By Yuval Rosenberg

In a Wall Street Journal column , Princeton economist and former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder explains why Washington’s race to increase deficits through a combination of tax cuts and...

This Year’s Social Security Cost of Living Hike Buys a Starbucks Frappuccino

By Eric Pianin

For the third consecutive year, the nation’s 65 million seniors will see virtually no increase in their Social Security benefits, even as premiums for their federally funded health care and...
Abolish Social Security? Gary Johnson's Libertarian Party Gets a Closer Look

By Eric Pianin

Gary Johnson and Bill Weld, the Libertarian Party candidates who are threatening to be spoilers in the November presidential election, have been campaigning on the themes of fiscal constraint, social...
States Face a $1 Trillion Pension Problem: Here Are the Worst 10

By Eric Pianin

While a handful of states including West Virginia, New York and Indiana have made important strides in reducing major shortfalls in their employee pension plans, many others are just treading water...
How the Democratic and GOP Platforms Clash Over Social Security Reform

By Eric Pianin

The new Democratic national platform approved this week in Philadelphia includes seismic changes in the Social Security programs. It includes a substantial increase in the average benefits to seniors...
How to Break Through America's Budget Gridlock

By Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY)

Last year could have been a big one for Congress, because it was able to pass its first joint balanced 10-year budget resolution since 2001 — a budget blueprint that would have put the nation’s...