McCain and ‘Privatizing’ Social Security
Quite a few commenters are accusing John McCain of flip-flopping because he favored privatization of Social security in 2004 and now adamantly rejects the insinuation that he supports it now: This is a clumsy rhetorical game rather than a policy shift. Then and now, McCain's position is that Social Security would remain as a government program but that younger workers ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 14, 2008 09:17
Social Security Privatization and Bad Times
Publius snarks, "It's too bad we didn't invest one-third of the Social Security system in the market." Indeed it is. To be sure, we'd have "lost" money if we had done so in early 2005 and taken all of it out this morning. Then again, we'd have lost money anyway since, in lieu of investing it in stocks, we're ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on March 17, 2008 10:21
Moody’s Says U.S. Credit Rating At Risk
Moody's, a credit rating agency, says the U.S. government's triple-A credit rating is jeopardy due to soaring health care expenditures and Social Security. This shouldn't be all that surprising. Think of a corporation whose expenditures are growing faster than its profits. Such a firm, generally, wont be around long. And that is precisely the problem with ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on January 16, 2008 10:02
Krugman vs. Krugman
Greg Mankiw presents a quote and article by Paul Krugman that, if you didn't know any better you'd swear were written by different people. Krugman on This Week: Paul Krugman: Social Security, if you go through the federal government, piece-by-piece, and see which programs are seriously underfunded and which are close to being completely funded, social security is one of the best. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on October 30, 2007 01:18
The First Baby Boomer Applies for Social Security
Well, that moment that has been much talked about has finally arrived. The first member of the Baby Boomer generation has applied for social security. The nation's "first" baby boomer, a retired teacher from New Jersey, applied for Social Security benefits Monday, signaling the start of an expected avalanche of applications from the post World War II generation. Social Security Commissioner ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on October 16, 2007 12:24
The Cost of Indecision
Laurence Kotlikoff spells out what the costs are of ignoring the problems of Social Security and Medicare. Let's face it--Uncle Sam is broke. The gap between the U.S. government's future expenses and tax receipts is $63.3 trillion. No surprise. The nation has 77 million retiring baby boomers on track to collect well above $30,000 a year--the average amount we're paying today's ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 14, 2006 09:36
Closing the “Donut Hole” in the Senior Prescription Drug Plan
One of the worst things President Bush did in terms of the fiscal outlook for this country was to put forward the Medicare prescription drug benefit. This plan is estimated to add $8.7 trillion in unfunded liabilities to Medicare's $21 trillion in unfunded liabilities. This is money that we won't be able to pay. And one of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 9, 2006 13:39
Fiscal Outlook: Grim
Via Menzie Chinn at Econbroswer comes this report from the GAO's Comptroller General, David Walker. This completely rebuts any claims by President Bush in regards to fiscal restraint. What is truly disappointing for those of us who are interested in fiscal restraint is the fourth line under Implicit Exposures. Medicare Part D is Bushes baby all the way, the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on October 24, 2006 13:40
Nuclear Scientists’ Data Stolen
A computer hacker has stolen the names and personal information of over 1,500 nuclear scientists.A computer hacker stole a file containing the names and Social Security numbers of 1,500 people working for the Energy Department's nuclear weapons agency. Officials told a congressional hearing Friday that the department's senior managers were informed only two days ago of last September's incident, which was ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 12, 2006 23:38
Social Security and Illegal Immigration
Well, this item is starting to make its way around the rightward blogs. From what I can tell the gist of it is this: In calculating the Social Security benefits for people who are currently illegal aliens, but become citizens under one of these various immigration reform bills, their income and contributions to Social Security while illegal would still be ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 18, 2006 19:13
