Both liberals and conservatives agree that Social Security’s coming fiscal problems need to be addressed soon or they will only grow worse. A recent analysis for the Pew Charitable Trusts by Charles Blahous, one of the two public trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, and Robert Greenstein, executive director of the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, shows that Social Security’s problems cannot be wished away: According to the trustees’ analysis, there is an 80 percent likelihood that the trust fund will be exhausted between 2032 …
When the next Congress arrives in Washington, Members will need to get to work to reduce runaway government spending. One area that has been identified as a good place to start—especially as the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform prepares to give its recommendations on deficit reduction next month—is Social Security. Today’s Social Security will begin to run cash-flow deficits starting in 2015. Once they start, those deficits will never end. There is a trust fund that allows Social Security to receive general revenue money, but it will run …
The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein has used a new Gallup poll showing that 77% of Americans believe “the cost of the government’s major entitlement programs, including Social Security and Medicare, will create major economic problems for the U.S. in the next 25 years” to produce the following headline: Americans prefer tax increases to benefit cuts. Problem is, that just is not the choice respondents were given. Here are the actual top line questions produced by Gallup:
There he goes again. President Obama is proposing yet another huge tax hike. Maybe we should cut to the chase and just ask our Taxhiker in Chief to state his final figure—what he thinks the total level of taxes and the tax distribution should look like. Then we could have an honest debate about tax burdens. As it is, all we know for sure is that he wants more, more, and more, and that he believes that those who make the most cannot pay enough. From the presidential campaign on, …
Today’s announcement that Social Security recipients will not receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) again in 2011 brought an immediate reaction from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–CA). She proposed that the lame duck Congress vote on giving seniors another $250 one-time payment supposedly to replace the COLA. This seemingly altruistic gesture would help Social Security recipients, but the real effect would be raising their grandkids’ taxes. These checks would be paid for with borrowed money, money that today’s children would have to repay with interest. Today’s Social Security is seen as …
The 2010 fiscal year just ended, but America’s fiscal crisis has just begun. In 2010, the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) preliminary estimates show that the federal government spent $3.45 trillion, amassing a deficit of $1.3 trillion. Spending on entitlement programs, which include Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, comprised 41 percent of the budget. And this is just the beginning. By 2050, entitlement programs will consume the entire federal budget. To keep up with this level of spending, the CBO predicts that tax rates would have to grow to 19 percent …
The Heritage Foundation’s 2010 Index of Dependence on Government, published today, showcases the disturbing trend of Americans becoming more dependent on their government – via their fellow non-dependent tax paying Americans – than ever before. The surge in the Index of 13.6% over last year takes the Index to an all time high. Government support for dependent persons has grown from $7,293 per person in 1962, to $31,950 per person in 2009, both amounts expressed in 2005 dollars. Many Americans pay no federal income tax for the dependency related programs …
My fellow conservatives, The stakes couldn’t be higher for our nation at this moment. In the coming months, Americans will help choose which direction our nation’s future will take. Will the federal government continue to spend more, tax more, control more, and defend our liberties less? Or will we choose a new and bolder direction that returns power to the people? All indications are that we are approaching one of those pivotal moments in our political history, a tipping point. It will be a test of our national character. Like …
Should Americans be forced into mandatory participation in a government-run long-term care Ponzi scheme? Or is a taxpayer bailout of another congressional misadventure a better idea? These may be the choices confronting a future Congress if the Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) Program is left intact. CLASS is a new government-run, long-term care entitlement for eligible workers created under Obamacare. The main concern with existing entitlement programs—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—is that millions of Americans have been promised a benefit that is simply unaffordable to deliver. Instead of …
Following the Civil War, the Republican Party won elections by characterizing their opponents as the party responsible for the conflict. These fear tactics carried the GOP to several successes over the course of about 20 years. This election strategy is still alive and well today. Now, it’s liberals who are “waving the bloody shirt,” this time through wild exaggerations of conservatives’ plans for Social Security reform. This is nothing new. The Wall Street Journal, in an article detailing this “Social Security Bait and Switch,” writes that scare tactics centered around the threat …
