by Bruce Webb House Minority Leader John Boehner said in a statement marking the 75th anniversary that while the law has served the needs of millions of Americans seniors, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees have “repeatedly warned Congress and the American people that reforms are necessary or future benefits will be threatened.”He added that […]
by Bruce Webb A little over a year ago I put up the following map from Cordesman and Toukan’s Study on a Possible Israeli Strike on Iran’s Nuclear Development Facilities “ A year later and this issue is back in the headlines and specifically in association with the publication by the uber-Likudnik Jeffrey Goldberg’s article […]
by Bruce Webb Back in 2000 Alan Greenspan warned Congress about the potential disappearance of the long bond in the face of continuing surpluses. He probably knew at the time that he was just feeding the appetites of tax-cutters, and not say advocating for using those surpluses for something like Universal Single Payer, but he […]
by Bruce Webb If I had to pick out the two biggest sources of confusion about Social Security finance it would have to be one, the relation of the Trust Funds to Public Debt and two, the relation of Social Security surplus/deficits to Budget Scoring. At Angry Bear we have discussed the equation Debt Held […]
by Bruce Webb Exactly a month ago I put up a post If a Social Security Annual Report Vanishes into the Forest noting that not only was the Report months overdue but that nobody seemed to notice or care that there was no official announcement about the reasons for the delay or a new release […]
by Bruce Webb Well surprising to me anyway. The 2009 Social Security Report projected a 75 year actuarial gap for combined OASDI of 2.00%. Between the structural change involved in changing the valuation period (as 2009 drops off and a new year 75 is added) and the current recession cutting into revenues I fully expected […]
by Bruce Webb Hot off the press. PDF of the 2010 Social Security Report: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2010/tr10.pdf News Release: http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/trustee10-pr-alt.pdf HTML version: Social Security Board of Trustees: Long-Range Financing Outlook Remains Unchanged Boy that title blew me away, as did the initial numbers: The Social Security Board of Trustees today released its annual report on the financial […]
by Bruce Webb First and foremost the long-awaited Social Security Annual Report will be released at noon Eastern on Thursday Aug. 5th. If the release holds true to form it will also go live to the web at that same time. I will have a breakout of the Report at my blog 2010 Social Security […]
by Bruce Webb The Ryan Budget Roadmap was introduced in January, and then sank like a stone. But with Ryan’s appointment to the Catfood Commission it and its author have drawn some new attention which borders on fawning. Or at least part of the plan has drawn attention, that part which would privatize Social Security […]
by Bruce Webb As I browsed through the news today it kind of struck me, not like a lightning bolt but more as an accumulation of blows, that capital was going for the final victory over labor. It was not just the realization that the corporatists and their enablers in both parties were willing to […]