Friday, September 16, 2011 at 12:46PM | Elianna Mintz
In a briefing held Friday by the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), Social Security advocates said cuttning seniors’ benefits to pay down the nation’s deficit would be highly destructive for current Social Security recipients and future beneficiaries.
Recently, lawmakers have suggested reforming America’s Social Security plan out of concern that it will run out of money by 2036.
Wilhelmina Leigh, Senior Research Associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, pointed to the deficit reduction plan co-authored last year by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson.
Under the proposal, the full-benefit retirement age would be increased beyond 67, the cost-of-living adjustment would be lowered for current and future beneficiaries and the formula for calculating benefits would be heavily altered.
Leigh said the proposal “will close the shortfall by cutting benefits.”
NASI officials argued that the Bowles-Simpson plan would reduce benefits for 92 percent of seniors by 2070.
To help portray the effect of such a proposal on future retirees, participants of the briefing presented micro-simulation models developed by the Social Security Administration that depict how the plan would impose large cuts by 2070 for one in three women and one in two men, one in four black and Hispanic seniors, half of all white seniors and 45 percent of all middle-income seniors.
“Cutting from these modest, average levels for any group could make it very difficult for people to continue to exist,” Leigh said.
Additionally, the Bowles-Simpson plan would raise revenues by gradually lifting the cap on earnings taxed for Social Security.
“The question for all of us is how to craft a Social Security program for the future that is both well-financed and provides adequate retirement security for the children and grandchildren of today’s retirees,” said NASI President Janice Gregory.
In related news, a new survery released Thursday shows that a majority of younger Americans do not believe that government-run Social Security will be around for them when they reach retirement.
According to the poll, conducted by the group, Generation Opportunity, 66 percent of adults ages 18-29 indicated that they believe their Social Security money is safer under their pillows than in the US Treasury.
“Young people…are simply looking for competent leadership that respects their interests and places a higher value on unleashing America’s economic engine to more create jobs and economic opportunity,” said Paul T. Conway, President of Generation Opportunity and a former Chief of Staff for the United States Department of Labor.
Social Security Advocates Warn Against Cuts
In a briefing held Friday by the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), Social Security advocates said cuttning seniors’ benefits to pay down the nation’s deficit would be highly destructive for current Social Security recipients and future beneficiaries.
Recently, lawmakers have suggested reforming America’s Social Security plan out of concern that it will run out of money by 2036.
Wilhelmina Leigh, Senior Research Associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, pointed to the deficit reduction plan co-authored last year by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson.
Under the proposal, the full-benefit retirement age would be increased beyond 67, the cost-of-living adjustment would be lowered for current and future beneficiaries and the formula for calculating benefits would be heavily altered.
Leigh said the proposal “will close the shortfall by cutting benefits.”
NASI officials argued that the Bowles-Simpson plan would reduce benefits for 92 percent of seniors by 2070.
To help portray the effect of such a proposal on future retirees, participants of the briefing presented micro-simulation models developed by the Social Security Administration that depict how the plan would impose large cuts by 2070 for one in three women and one in two men, one in four black and Hispanic seniors, half of all white seniors and 45 percent of all middle-income seniors.
“Cutting from these modest, average levels for any group could make it very difficult for people to continue to exist,” Leigh said.
Additionally, the Bowles-Simpson plan would raise revenues by gradually lifting the cap on earnings taxed for Social Security.
“The question for all of us is how to craft a Social Security program for the future that is both well-financed and provides adequate retirement security for the children and grandchildren of today’s retirees,” said NASI President Janice Gregory.
In related news, a new survery released Thursday shows that a majority of younger Americans do not believe that government-run Social Security will be around for them when they reach retirement.
According to the poll, conducted by the group, Generation Opportunity, 66 percent of adults ages 18-29 indicated that they believe their Social Security money is safer under their pillows than in the US Treasury.
“Young people…are simply looking for competent leadership that respects their interests and places a higher value on unleashing America’s economic engine to more create jobs and economic opportunity,” said Paul T. Conway, President of Generation Opportunity and a former Chief of Staff for the United States Department of Labor.