entitlement reform
8 pieces tagged “entitlement reform”, newest first.
Social Security Is Still a Looming Disaster
Everything is on the radar right now except the one thing that everyone in Washington should be talking about.
Who is the Real Con Man: Ryan or Krugman?
Writing about Republicans in U.S. House of Representatives, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman says Paul Ryan is "basically, the best con man they've got." He goes on to characterize the modern Republican Party" as "a post-policy enterprise, which doesn't do real solutions to real problems."
Speak Now, Congress, or Forever Maintain the Status Quo
The House of Representatives is looking for a new speaker. Such times of change present a perfect opportunity for Congress to reflect on what it should aspire to achieve. On top of the list is getting control of our fiscal situation by restraining government spending in ways that are consistent with a healthy and vibrant private sector. This will also make better tax policy more likely and help restrain debt levels.
Candidates AWOL on Plans to Cut Spending
Donald Trump is the most recent Republican presidential candidate to release a plan to reform our burdensome tax code. Though all the proposals are different, they share common characteristics. They would cut income tax rates on households, lower the tax code's bias against savings and investment, close some loopholes, and reform America's anti-competitive corporate income tax system. Now all they need to be politically credible are sister plans to produce concomitant levels of spending restraint. According to the Tax Foundation, none of these plans would be revenue-neutral. Contrary to what you hear, that's a good thing, because it means they would reduce the amount of money the government collects from us. Using a static model that assumes people do not change their behavior much, over 10 years government revenues would shrink by $2.97 trillion under Rand Paul's plan, by $4 trillion under Marco Rubio and Mike Lee's plan, by $3.6 trillion under Jeb Bush's plan, and by $11.98 trillion under Trump's plan.
Your Life Expectancy and Your Social Security
According to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, life expectancy in the United States is the longest ever, approaching 79 years. This was highlighted in the recent Time cover story, "This Baby Could Live to Be 142 Years Old." With very few exceptions — such as the flu pandemic of 1918, which caused the life expectancy to temporarily plummet by a dozen years — our life expectancy has continued with a positive trend line throughout our nation's history.
Addressing the Social Security Disability Insurance Dis-Trust Fund
Have you ever wondered why your television screen is often filled with advertisements from law firms touting their ability to land money for the disabled? It's because helping people obtain federal Social Security disability benefits has become a lucrative industry in the past decade. But it would be a mistake to only blame the legal profession. After all, lawyers are only taking advantage of a program that frequently encourages people with dubious disability claims to seek benefits, especially when the economy is down. According to the Social Security trustees report released at the end of July, the disability insurance trust fund will run out of money by the end of 2016. Without reforms, millions of Americans will receive an automatic 19 percent reduction in their Social Security Disability Insurance benefits.