by Bruce Webb There has been a recent mini-surge of op-eds claiming that the ‘assets’ of the Trust Funds, all $2.6 trillion, are simply mythical. The most recent Scrooge to argue this line may have been Thomas McClanahan of the KC Star in this piece from Christmas: More mythbusting on Social Security ‘money’” in which […]
I’m late to seeing this, and Bruce has probably already covered it, but Doug Elmendorg at the CBO inadvertently gives away the game on the Administration’s approach to—let alone opinion of—the Social Security “Trust Fund”: The balances in trust funds have accrued because income associated with those programs has exceeded the expenses; when that happens, […]
Had a long day of Social Security related blogginess so will just put up this to spark some discussion: In Part One of this post I discussed the danger that the 2% ‘temporary’ payroll tax cut might be a Trojan Horse destined never to expire in full or at all only to have any continuing […]
Update: Brad DeLong appears to confirm that Obama’s inner circle would be best served by being placed in a circular firing squad, given live ammo, and being told to “do what is right.” The plethora of disingenuous claims that Barack Obama “won” with the McConnell-Obama “compromise” are legend. See, for instance, the idiocy of Andrew […]
by Bruce Webb (cross posted at new dedicated (and partially funded) blog Social Security Defender) As part of the Tax Cut deal Obama cut with Republicans there was included a one-year cut of 2% of payroll out of the 6.2% employee share of the overall 12.4% of payroll sent to Social Security. This cut was […]
Update: Brad DeLong looks at the data and suggests that the problem may be that the current President is as innumerate as the previous one. Mark Thoma quotes James Kwak: So no, I don’t think Obama is abandoning his principles for political advantage; I think these are his principles. And while I’m upset at him, […]
Nov. 30, is National Call Congress Day to fight Social Security cuts! It’s not too late to commit to participating in this important event. Call your Senators tomorrow (Tuesday) at 1-866-529-7630, toll-free. The operator will identify your senators by asking for your zip code. Call BOTH of your senators if you have time. It only […]
by Bruce Webb Strengthen Social Security a coalition of progressive organizations determined to protect and strengthen Social Security, coordinated and hosted by Social Security Works (or maybe by now SSW is hosted by SSSC) produced the above graph. I didn’t see it on their website and so grabbed it from Ezra Klein’s post (which does […]
by Bruce Webb Well it is out and I have a copy. And no doubt in short order it will be up at the following web-page: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/solvency/index.html but as of 10:43 AM PST it wasn’t. Because just like the SSA score of the Chairmen’s proposal there is a lag between release and web publication. I’ll […]
by Bruce Webb And by ‘framing’ I mean as in Film Noir gangster movies rather than Lakoffian terms. (Apropos of nothing, Prof. Lakoff gave me the worst grade I ever got in college, but felt so bad about it I wanted to tell HIM to ‘buck up’. Long time ago.) Peter Orszag has made quite […]