Articles
- Benefit Bulletin: February 2020 TSCL Endorses Legislation That Would Help the Public Understand Social Security Benefits By Rick Delaney, Chairman of the Board People close to retirement sometimes tell us they don’t have a clue about how much they will receive in Social Security benefits. This is concerning, because knowing your Social Security income is the key to retirement planning. Without ...
- How A Tax on “Wealthy” Retirees Ended Up A Tax On The Middle Class Mary Johnson, editor Roughly one-half of all retiree households report that a portion of their Social Security benefits is subject to taxation, according to TSCL’s Senior Surveys. That’s substantially more than expected from the time when the tax on benefits was first enacted in 1983. At that time, the tax was estimated to affect just 10 ...
- Benefit Bulletin: November 2019 Rick Delaney, Chairman of the Board Social Security Legislation Would Provide 75 Years of Solvency For Social Security If lawmakers wait too long, solutions for fixing Social Security’s financing could involve deep cuts and large abrupt tax increases. But Members of the House Ways and Means Committee are discussing an alternate path to solvency for the program ...
- Benefit Bulletin: October 2019 Rick Delaney, Chairman of the Board, TSCL Could Social Security Solvency Issues Be Even Worse Than Estimated? Recently we received a comment from Steve F. of California, who noted that, by his understanding, if Congress takes no action, Social Security benefits would have to be cut 30% by 2030. Steve asked what projections are available that estimate ...
- Social Security Benefits Lose 33% of Buying Power Between October of 2018, and January 2019, consumer prices fell according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. On January 1, 2019, Social Security beneficiaries received a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) of 2.8%. Theoretically, the combination of higher benefits, and lower prices, should translate into more money for retirees in the short term. But according ...
- Failing to Lift Debt Limit Would Be “Disastrous” For Social Security and Medicare The federal government shutdown that occurred from midnight December 22, 2018, until January 25, 2019, was the longest in U.S. history. It was so disruptive that an analysis from Standard and Poor’s (S & P) estimated that the shut down cost the U.S. economy $3.6 billion. While the government shutdown was terrible for all affected, ...
- Higher Taxation of Social Security Among Options to Reduce the Deficit The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently reviewed a proposal that would boost the taxable amount of Social Security benefits, as one of the options for Congress to consider to reduce the federal deficit. The proposal, which the CBO has reviewed in prior versions of its Options to Reduce the Deficit, would tax Social Security and ...
- 67% of Older Americans Support Eliminating Social Security’s Waiting Periods More than 10,000 people died waiting for a disability decision from the Social Security Administration in 2017. The rising death toll coincides with the growing backlog of people awaiting a decision about their eligibility for Social Security disability insurance benefits. But even after a disabled individual has been found eligible, he or she must wait ...
- Can We Depend On the Social Security Trust Fund? Mary Johnson, editor Since enactment 84 years ago, Social Security has been the most reliable source of retirement income that most retirees have. That said, our current Social Security program has a funding imbalance that’s creeping forward. In 2018 the Congressional Budget Office reported that Social Security’s total benefit costs exceeded its total income, including (for ...
- Social Security and Medicare Blamed for Rising Deficits Are Cuts The Only Way to Reduce the Deficit? After passing new tax legislation that’s projected to increase the federal deficit by more than $1.5 trillion over the next ten years, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (KY) recently blamed Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for the rapidly increasing deficit. McConnell said the only way to ...
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