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Social Security: Just the Facts Video
Have you seen our video, “Social Security: Just the Facts?” Click here to learn more and find additional resources for exploring each topic in more depth.
Social Security
The Case Against Cutting Social Security
The case against cutting Social Security is strong.
Read More…Views from the Stakeholders of OASDI: Employers, Workers, and Vulnerable Communities
How should we evaluate proposed changes to Social Security? Whose perspective should we take when judging the strengths and weaknesses of social insurance policy? In “Views from the Stakeholders of OASDI: Employers, Workers, and Vulnerable Communities,” Session III of NASI’s 23rd annual policy research conference, four groups were represented as stakeholders of Social Security: employers, workers, children and families, and persons of color.
Read More…Improving Social Security’s Benefits is Critical to Economic Recovery and Security
At NASI’s 2011 annual conference, the session “Should We Adopt the Social Security Recommendations of the Fiscal Commission Co-Chairs?” demonstrated the complexity of the Social Security reform debate.
Charles Blahous, a Social Security trustee, argued in favor of adopting the Fiscal Commission proposals, which he characterized as a “reasonable compromise” because it utilizes ideas from both sides of the aisle.
Andy Stern, a member of the Fiscal Commission, ultimately voted against the co-chairs’ proposal. He emphasized that while a crisis exists, it is of middle class retirement security in general – not Social Security – due to shrinking personal savings, fewer pension plans, and the erosion of family-wage jobs.
Read More…Social Insurance Programs and the President’s Budget
President Obama’s February 14th budget proposal for fiscal year 2012 would freeze or reduce funding for many federal programs as part of a strategy to begin reducing the federal deficit. The nation’s major social insurance programs – Social Security and Medicare – appear to have been exempt from such changes, at least for the moment.
The release of the President’s budget proposal is, of course, only the beginning of what will be a difficult and unpredictable negotiating process with a divided and contentious Congress. In the course of negotiations the pledges made this week by the President could be markedly altered, with potentially long-term consequences for the people who rely on these social insurance programs.
Social Security
Under the heading “Secure Social Security,” the President’s budget message states:
