Social Security

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Health Reform Saves Medicare $8B by 2011: White House

Overhaul could save $575B over the next decade

(Newser) - The new health overhaul law is starting to produce savings for Medicare and will eventually add more than a decade of solvency to the program's trust fund, the Obama administration said in an upbeat report released today. Medicare will save about $8 billion by the end of next year, and...

Boehner: Raise Retirement Age to 70
Boehner: Raise Retirement Age to 70
Jun 29, 2010 3:18 PM CDT

Boehner: Raise Retirement Age to 70

American people need to know 'we're broke'

(Newser) - House Republican leader John Boehner thinks the retirement age should be raised to 70 for those who still have at least 20 years to go in the work force. "We need to look at the American people and explain to them that we're broke," he tells the Pittsburgh ...

Tea Partiers Decry Socialism But Want Gov't Jobs
 Tea Partiers Decry Socialism 
 But Want Gov't Jobs 
BLOOMBERG POLL
Mar 26, 2010 9:20 AM CDT

Tea Partiers Decry Socialism But Want Gov't Jobs

Turns out not all 'socialist' programs are bad

(Newser) - Upwards of 90% of tea partiers are convinced that the US is creeping away from capitalism towards socialism, but they aren’t as stridently opposed to that as you might think. Sure, roughly the same number think the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to a new Bloomberg...

Social Security to Take In Less Than It Pays Out in 2010

Payouts exceeding revenue 6 years ahead of predictions

(Newser) - The recession has battered Social Security, too: The program will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes this year, says the Congressional Budget Office. The system hadn't been expected to reach its "tipping point" until 2016. The change will have no effect on benefits, but...

Greek Debt Crisis Is Warning for US
 Greek Debt Crisis 
 Is Warning for US 
OPINION
Feb 17, 2010 1:24 AM CST

Greek Debt Crisis Is Warning for US

Partisan deadlock allowed budget problems to fester

(Newser) - America's on course to become much more like Greece and not in a good way, warns Anne Applebaum. Greece is bankrupt because of financial weaknesses that were allowed to fester for years. Its budget deficit ballooned largely because the nation's deeply partisan political system was paralyzed and no cuts could...

Eying Deficit, Obama Plans $447B Freeze
Eying Deficit, Obama Plans $447B Freeze
STATE OF THE UNION PREVIEW
Jan 25, 2010 8:09 PM CST

Eying Deficit, Obama Plans $447B Freeze

17% of US budget affected, not including defense, entitlements

(Newser) - The latest detail to trickle out about initiatives President Obama plans to serve up in Wednesday’s State of the Union address is one aimed at cutting the $1.4 trillion federal budget deficit. Obama will announce a 3-year freeze on $447 billion in spending, a measure that could save...

Vegas Shooter Enraged Over Social Security Cutback

Claimed he'd been racially discriminated against

(Newser) - Police have identified the culprit in yesterday’s Las Vegas courthouse shootout as Johnny Lee Wicks, a black 66-year-old retiree who, they believe, was enraged over a recent Social Security dispute. When Wicks moved from California to Nevada in January 2008, his Social Security check shrank, because he lost a...

Forget the $250 Checks, Obama: Say No to Grandma
Forget the $250 Checks, Obama: Say No to Grandma
David Leonhardt
Oct 28, 2009 8:35 AM CDT

Forget the $250 Checks, Obama: Say No to Grandma

To cut deficit, we have to cut benefits to seniors

(Newser) - Economists are none too impressed with Barack Obama's proposal to send each senior a cool $250, and David Leonhardt can see why. The over-65 set has weathered the recession better than anyone—many of them purchased real estate well before the housing bubble burst, and few work in the most-battered...

Obama's Stealth Stimulus: $250 Checks to Seniors

With social security stagnant, Obama proposes payment to elderly

(Newser) - Seniors won’t be getting a boost in their Social Security benefits this January, but President Obama tried to head off that announcement yesterday by encouraging Congress to give them all a one-time $250 check. The administration sees these payments, which would cost the government about $13 billion, as another...

Over a Lifetime, Being a Gay Couple Can Cost $470K Extra

Detailed analysis takes health insurance, taxes, other benefits into account

(Newser) - An exhaustive analysis of the lifetime costs a committed gay couple faces compared to those of a heterosexual marriage finds that, in the worst case, the gay couple pays out nearly $470,000 extra. The study by the New York Times assumed the couples were together until one partner died,...

Social Security Faces Grim Forecast for 2010, 2011

Payouts will exceed tax receipts for first time since 1980s

(Newser) - Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next 2 years, the first time that's happened since the 1980s. The deficits—$10 billion in 2010 and $9 billion in...

Mr. President, Stop Picking On 'Bureaucrats'
Mr. President, Stop Picking On 'Bureaucrats'
OPINION
Sep 12, 2009 12:55 PM CDT

Mr. President, Stop Picking On 'Bureaucrats'

What happened to making government 'cool' again?

(Newser) - In his admirable quest to make government work for the people, President Obama has stooped to the lowest common denominator and vilified “bureaucrats,” writes Max Stier in the Washington Post. A typical shot from the president recently: “I don't want government bureaucrats meddling in your health care....

'Pull the Plug on Grandma'? That's GOP Policy
'Pull the Plug on Grandma'? That's GOP Policy
analysis
Aug 30, 2009 5:20 PM CDT

'Pull the Plug on Grandma'? That's GOP Policy

Republicans, not Obama, willing to let elderly die off: Weisberg

(Newser) - Chuck Grassley’s warning that Obamacare will “pull the plug on Grandma” has become a rallying cry for the GOP’s anti–health reform efforts. But looking at past policies, it’s the GOP that's out to get grandma, Jacob Weisberg writes in Newsweek. A wide range of Republican...

IRS May Cut 401(k) Contribution Limit

(Newser) - Low inflation could force the IRS to decrease the amount workers can contribute to their 401(k) plans to $16,000, USA Today reports. It would mark the first time the government has ever lowered contribution limits. Though a spokesperson says it’s too early for speculation, the IRS may not...

Millions Face Shrinking Social Security Payments

(Newser) - Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise. The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting there won't be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next 2 years. That hasn't happened since automatic increases...

On Health Care, Left Should Cut Deals
 On Health Care, Left 
 Should Cut Deals 
OPINION
Aug 13, 2009 7:43 AM CDT

On Health Care, Left Should Cut Deals

(Newser) - Presidents from FDR to Nixon to Clinton tried and failed to reform the health care system, but with Barack Obama closer than ever before, the left is already blasting him for compromising too much. That's a shame, writes Clinton strategist Paul Begala, who regrets "setting the bar at 100%"...

Tax Revenue Takes Biggest Dive Since Great Depression

(Newser) - US tax revenue is set to shrink 18% from last fiscal year to the current one, ending in October—the largest falloff since 1932, the AP reports. Individual income-tax receipts are off 22%, and corporate revenues have sunk an astounding 57%. “Our tax system is already inadequate to support...

Social Security Suffers as Execs' Pay Soars

Top-paid workers get a third of total US pay

(Newser) - Executives and other employees earning top dollar pull in more than a third of all US pay, the Wall Street Journal finds—and the ceiling on compensation subject to payroll taxes hasn’t risen enough accordingly, meaning the government isn’t bringing in what’s needed to plug ever-growing holes...

Social Security Numbers Guessable From Public Data

Available birth info can ease identity theft

(Newser) - Social Security numbers can be predicted, making them unfit to be “authentication devices” amid increasing worry over identity theft, researchers warn the Washington Post. Knowing a person’s birthday and birthplace can point the way to the first five digits, a study finds. “If they are predictable from...

Social Security, Medicare Going Broke? Terrific!

(Newser) - Social Security and Medicare are headed toward disaster, and that’s a good thing, Robert J. Samuelson writes in Newsweek. The programs are expected to run out of money by 2017 and 2037, respectively, and when they do, politicians will have to make painful, necessary reforms. “The counterintuitive lesson:...

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