CPA answers Rep. Cooper with other Social Security facts
I recently read Rep. Jim Cooper's Nashville Eye concerning Social Security. He asked Nashville-area citizens to express their views about reforming the program.
Social Security Reform: Reducing the Risk of Poverty
President Bush wants to add a personal investment component to the U.S. Social Security system. Under a Bush-style reform plan, workers would be able to contribute a portion of their payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts, which would pay a gradually increasing part of their retirement benefits.
Social Security Reform: Keeping Administrative Costs Low
Public pension programs – including the U.S. Social Security system – tax workers to pay current retirees' benefits. But in the United States, as in other developed nations, falling birthrates and rising life expectancies leave fewer workers to support each retiree. Without reform these factors will eventually require large tax increases, large benefit cuts or both to keep the programs alive.
Social Security Reform: Looking at the Options
The present value of Social Security's long-term funding gap is $11 trillion in 2004 dollars. That means we would need $11 trillion in the bank today, earning the government's borrowing rate, to eliminate all of the program's future debt. Another way to reduce this debt is to reduce Social Security's obligations.
Thinking Outside The “Big Box”
Neighborhoods, city councils and the media are debating whether to welcome or discourage big-box retailers. While Wal-Mart comes to mind, big-box retailers are defined as any free-standing store greater than 50,000 square feet, and most big-box stores now range in size from 90,000 to 200,000 square feet. Critics claim that large retailers crowd out mom-and-pop competitors and replace them with windowless warehouses filled with minimum wage workers. Big-box retailers promise economic benefits such as sales tax revenues, jobs, competitive wages and low prices. But do they deliver? Empirical evidence shows that they have provided numerous benefits.
Act Now to Lift Burden Off Our Children
Each day, 10,000 baby boomers turn 55. Most are enjoying their peak earning power right now and billions of dollars are pouring into the Social Security fund. However, those dollars are flowing into a "pay-as-you-go" system so they're flowing out just as fast as they come in. Nothing is saved.
Medicare Now and in the Future
By 2024 Medicare spending is expected to exceed Social Security spending and the differential will continue to escalate thereafter. Here I discuss several ways to assess the current and future status of Medicare as it pertains to the Federal budget.
Surviving the Retirement Boom
Ten thousand baby boomers turn 60 every day. In just two years, 77 million boomers will begin reaching early retirement age and will become eligible for Social Security benefits. When that happens, they will stop paying into Social Security and begin drawing money from it.
Socialism's Last Redoubt
Why do Dems oppose Social Security reform? Because they're committed to government control.
Drug Reimportation: The Free Trade Solution
Significant numbers of Americans are traveling across the Canadian border or using the Internet to buy prescription drugs at Canadian prices. These sales are illegal, but should they be? Is importing drugs the solution to high U.S. drug prices?
The Coming Fiscal Deluge
In 2011, the first group of baby boomers will reach the age of 65. When the last of that generation retires in 2032, 77 million of them will have ceased working and paying taxes and will have begun receiving taxpayer-funded health care and pension benefits.
The Honorable Alphonso Jackson
Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
Patient Power: Access to Drugs
Consumers recently lost a money-saving opportunity when a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel voted against over-the-counter (OTC) access to the cholesterol-reducer Mevacor. This is the third time the FDA has turned down a request to make cholesterol lowering drugs available without a prescription, thus denying consumers the power to control an important aspect of their medical care.
Aging, the World Economy and the Coming Generational Storm
The United States is about to experience the greatest demographic change in its history. Most of this change will occur over the next 30 years, as 77 million baby boomers cease to work and pay payroll taxes and instead start to retire and collect benefits.
The Minimum Wage Is Bad Policy
The concept of a minimum wage seems straightforward: If we believe the wages of some workers are too low, we should pass a law requiring those wages to be higher. What could be simpler? The problem is that increasing the minimum wage may make some people better off, but others will be harmed. Experience proves that the minimum wage hurts more people than it helps.