Actuaries helping Social Security

Terry Taylor of the American Academy of Actuaries says the academy believes any solution to Social Security’s financial soundness must include increases in the retirement age. He says the retirement age is frozen at 67 for all Americans born after 1959 and that raising the age of retirement to reflect increased longevity would help to alleviate future financial problems. (0:53)
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Obama camp okay with raising taxes to fund social security

Jeffrey Liebman, a policy advisor to the Barack Obama campaign says the McCain campaign put out an economic plan in which they said the Obama campaign cannot afford our benefit promises to seniors for social security. But Liebman says that Obama “does believe we can choose to meet our benefit promises to seniors.” Liebman added that Obama believes the best way to handle social security is “in a bi-partisan way,” and that the place to start in paying for it is “to have the people that can most afford it contribute more revenue.” (0:40)
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McCain simply “out of touch” with Americans

The Democratic National Committee held a conference call and discussed Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) “disastrous” week on the campaign trail. McCain was supposed to strengthen his stance on his economic policy this week, but instead showed how “out of touch” he is with the challenges that America’s families are facing. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said that she was insulted on behalf of the people she represents by McCain’s words and actions. She explained that McCain doesn’t understand what Americans go through everyday just to make ends meet and how his support for more years of a Bush economy would be disastrous for American families.

Stabenow explained that McCain actually called social security a “disgrace’ when he has “a total lack of understanding” of what it really is. She also said that McCain’s approach on tax policy would make it impossible to balance the nation’s budget, something that needs to be done. McCain also failed to vote for the current medicare bill; he was the only senator to miss the vote which “is critical to the future of medicare.”

Stabenow said that people in Michigan are suffering and are not experiencing “a mental recession.” Since President Bush took office, three and a half million manufacturing jobs have been lost in Michigan alone, and the state is currently experiencing an unemployment rate of eight and a half percent. Stabenow explained that McCain fully supported Bush’s policies and that the people of Michigan “cannot take four more years of this.”

McCain’s economic advisor Phil Gramm said that Americans are “a nation of whiners,” yet Stabenow said that the people of Michigan are not hallucinating when they aren’t getting a paycheck, when they can’t pay their mortgage, and when they can’t put food on the table. Stabenow said that people are struggling as every single cost has gone up while wages have gone down. She claimed that McCain is simply not in touch with what is going on in the real world. Stabenow also declared her support for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and said that she is absolutely confident that he will make the changes that will help the country grow, and gets what the American population is going through.
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UFOs in the mail

At the 2008 National Small Business Summit, William D. Novelli says that young working adults feel they are more likely to see a UFO than receive a social security cheque in the mail. (0:33)
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Rep. Johnson says NEVA will "maintain a legal work force"

Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX) explains the goals of the New Employment Verification Act at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on employment verification systems: to “ensure a legal work force, safeguard worker identities, and protect social security.” (0:22)
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Congressman McDermott discusses the backlog of social security benefit distribution

Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) discusses the "growing line" of Americans seeking help from Congress to receive their benefits. (0:48)
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Congressman Rangel discusses the need for the government to provide social security benefits

Congressman Charles Rangel (NY-D), chairing a hearing on social security benefit backlogging, discusses the need for the government to provide Americans with the benefits they deserve. (0:37)
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People need to save their money, Congressman Latta says

Congressman Bob Latta (R-OH) says there is a serious problem in this country and we need to encourage more people to save. The United States has a negative savings rate, and how are these people going to take care of themselves when they get ready to retire? With Social Security today, there is about 3.3 workers per person on Social Security, and in the future when it gets to be one to one, those people can only expect about 78% of Social Security. We need to encourage people to go out and save, because there might not be that safety net for individuals. (1:05)
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Clinton says we can count on Social Security far into the future

At the CWA Conference, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) says she was somewhat surprised to hear that Senator McCain said he would put privatizing Social Security "back on the table." Well, she says, there's not going to be any chance of that happening when I'm president. We're going to strengthen Social Security so that we can count on it far into the future. (:25)
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Clinton says she will protect Social Security

At the CWA Conference, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) says there will be lifetime retirement security plans, she will strengthen pension benefit plans, end the use of bankruptcy for companies to "shed their pension obligations," and under her new American retirement accounts, there will be generous matching tax cuts from the government to help people to save, and I will always protect Social Security. (:35)
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HHS Secretary Leavitt says that Social Security is a math problem, while Medicare fixes require deeper social changes

Speaking at a press conference on the FY2009 budget, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt says that Social Security is a math problem, but fixing Medicare will require deeper social changes. (0:23)
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