by Dale Coberly MAYA MACGUINEAS COMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET (CRFB) TALKS BACKWARDS ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY IN THE NEW YORK TIMES…NOBODY THE WISER Here is what she said: “and “protecting” Social Security and Medicare, a reassuring political promise that removes over one-third of the budget from consideration.” “trying to square the circle of balancing […]

Lifted from comments by Dale Coberly… This year’s Social Security Trustees Report seems to be late as usual. But this is the LAST year that a gradual increase in the payroll tax can begin and still solve some of the less understood problems of the projected shortfall in SS funding: This is mostly that a […]

by Dale Coberly GOP PLANS TO GUT SOCIAL SECURITY The  Republicans have opened a new assault on Social Security.  At present all I know about it is what I read  in a Talking Points Memo by Tierney Sneed   Key House GOPer Introduces Bill With Major Cuts To Social Security . The trouble with Sneed’s article […]

Coberly/ July 21, 2016 10:26 am mike instead of begging to differ, why don’t you try to explain your case better? it sounds to me like you are arguing that ignoring traffic violations in black neighborhoods will result in more black on black crime including homicide. that could well be the case, but i don’t think […]

by Dale Coberly SOCIAL SECURITY TRUSTEES REPORT An Overview of the Overview The 2016 Trustees Report  didn’t have much new to say, so the usual commentators were free to say what they have always said, which is mostly wrong. A careful reading of just the Overview (p 2 to 25 of the Report) will help […]

by Dale Coberly SOCIAL SECURITY, OBAMA, and the CRFB Obama once offered to cut Social Security as part of a Grand Bargain with the Republicans.  Now he says he thinks Social Security ought to be expanded. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) answers him with their usual list of reasons why Social Security […]

Holiday present for you via Congress and the Cromnibus. Tucked into the massive spending bill Congress passed this weekend was legislation that reversed 40 years of federal law protecting retirees’ pensions.  The change will allow benefit cuts for up to 10 million workers, many of them part of a shrinking middle-class workforce in businesses such […]

by Dale Coberly VERY SHORT POST ON SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY INSURANCE The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has issued a “call for papers” with suggestions for “fixing” SSDI. I expect that by “fixing” they mean cutting people off and getting them back to work. After all, even people on IV’s could work as telephone […]

by Dale Coberly FINANCING SOCIAL SECURITY A BOB BALL APPROACH Bob Ball proposed in 2007 (www.robertmball.org quoted in NASI “Fixing Social Security” Reno and Lavery, 2009, p 14) a “balancing rate increase.” This is the way his idea was described in the NASI publication: Acknowledging the uncertainty of 75 year projections, former Social Security Commissioner […]

by Dale Coberly DEAR PAUL KRUGMANPlease Read This about Social Security Dear Paul Krugman, There was an indication the other day that you read Angry Bear, at least sometimes. I hope you read this, because it is important, and you have a better forum than I have. I think the following facts would be game […]