Boston College's Alicia Munnell has a nice piece in the New York Times today looking at ways to fix Social Security. A quick cut: The task force suggested four major changes: indexing the full retirement age (after it reaches 67) to improvements in longevity; switching to a measure of inflation that grows more slowly than the one now used to calculate Social Security's cost-of-living adjustment; gradually increasing the earnings subject to the payroll tax (and the basis for benefits) to about $180,000 from $106,800 today; and gradually subjecting both employer and employee premiums for group health insurance to payroll and income taxes. Click here to read the whole piece.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Munnell: To cut deficit, look to Social Security
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2 comments:
Any proposal addressing the social security issue must begin with an unpacking of the issue; peeling the onion one layer at a time if you will: http://bit.ly/epY4f9 Then a proposal that revitalizes middle class America, their families, and the communities they call home:
http://bit.ly/goflF5 Join the debate, every weekday 9am (eastern) http://bit.ly/eN1pyf
"it cannot spend money it doesn’t have.
But in reality, scheduled Social Security benefits and current payroll taxes are included in long-term deficit projections by the Congressional Budget Office"
Munnel is suggesting changing the program because policy makers use a projection that does not conform to reality? Would it not be more reasonable to perform the analysis based on the moneys SS is actually allowed to spend?
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