Social Security

Do Deficit Hawks Have a Snowball’s Chance in Hell in Today’s Politics?

By Michael Rainey

When Starbucks founder and executive chairman Howard Schultz announced his retirement earlier this week, he set off a round of speculation about a possible presidential run in 2020. Schultz has never...
Medicare Finances Worsen, Social Security Will Tap Reserves for First Time in 36 Years

By Yuval Rosenberg

Medicare’s financial problems worsened last year while Social Security still faces a significant long-term financial crunch — and will need to tap into its reserves for the first time in 36 years,...
Why More Retirees Are Waiting to Claim Social Security

By Michael Rainey

Retirees are waiting longer to claim their Social Security benefits, reports Mark Miller of Reuters, with the number of early claimants dropping dramatically in recent years: “As recently as 2004,...
Election Ad Wars 2018: GOP Focuses on Immigration, Dems on Health Care

By Yuval Rosenberg

The 2018 elections are 160 days away, but the campaign ad wars are already well under way, with Republicans and Democrats focusing on very different issues so far — though the election is clearly...
The Unintended Consequence of Letting Workers Take Social Security at Age 62

By Michael Rainey

With the Social Security system facing insolvency by 2034, one option to address the program’s fiscal shortfall is to raise the early retirement age of 62. While little is known about the effects...

US Fertility Just Hit a 30-Year Low. Why That's a Problem for Social Security

By Michael Rainey

Births in the U.S. fell to a multi-decade low last year, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics released Tuesday. The provisional estimate shows 3.85 million births in the U...
Here’s How Much Americans Rely on Social Security

By Yuval Rosenberg

Social Security once again tops the list of major income sources for U.S. retirees — just as it has every year since 2001, according to a new Gallup survey . Almost six in 10 U.S. retirees surveyed...
Is Social Security a ‘Good Investment’?

By Michael Rainey

Social Security is a pay-as-you-go social insurance program, not an investment fund, but Monique Morrissey of the Economic Policy Institute says that its return on contributions is actually quite...
Paul Ryan's Fiscal Legacy: Lots of Red Ink

By Yuval Rosenberg

House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Wednesday that he won’t seek re-election this year and will retire at the end of his term in January, becoming the most prominent in a wave of Republican lawmakers...
Yellen, Democratic Economists Say Fixing Debt Crisis Isn’t All About Entitlements

By Yuval Rosenberg

Late last month, a quintet of big-name Hoover Institution economists warned in a Washington Post op-ed that a coming “string of perpetually rising trillion-dollar-plus deficits” could soon lead to a...

Why Uncle Sam Seized $713 Million From Social Security Checks Last Year

By Kelli B. Grant, CNBC

If you're counting on Social Security benefits, you better make sure you don't owe Uncle Sam. Under certain circumstances, the government can seize part of your Social Security check to satisfy...
Oregon Just Took the Lead in Getting Americans to Save More for Retirement

By Eric Pianin

Bucking resistance from a Republican Congress and the Trump Administration, Oregon has become the first state to launch a program requiring private employers to either offer their own 401 (k) savings...
Trump’s 2018 Budget: F in Math, A in Provocation

By Edward Morrissey

Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to enact economic policies that would produce annual growth in gross domestic product (GDP) consistently higher than 3 percent. The US economy has not seen that...
The Heartless Tradeoffs in the Trump Budget

By Mark Thoma

As the bombshells continue to drop on the Trump administration, behind the scenes Trump’s first detailed budget proposal is being developed, and it has a few bombshells of its own, particularly for...
How Millions of Aging Baby Boomers Could Bust the Economy

By Eric Pianin

A new report not only highlights growing economic anxiety among an increasingly important and influential cohort of the population, but also suggests that this overarching pessimism and caution could...