January 19th, 2007

 "The [Social Security] crisis is today if you are a young American."

Grover Norquist
President of Americans for Tax Reform

 
The American Academy of Actuaries launched a new Social Security reform game yesterday.  The game is appropriately named "The Social Security Game."



They say: "Try your hand at Social Security reform.  Can you solve Social Security's financial problems? Play the game to explore options for Social Security reform and their impact on the program's solvency."

I played and...I solved it!  I fixed it with personal accounts!  All it took was investing a portion of the trust fund in the market and making benefit adjustments.

Now one might be tempted to go into the politics of their formulas.  For example, they don't compute personal accounts as part of the solution as all (which is wrong and I think that this is part of the problem!).

But perhaps they just did it to make the game simple.  Or perhaps there is a secondary agenda.  Either way, it does prove one thing: fixing Social Security is easy!  It just requires a lot of political leadership.  That's the hard part!

Try it for yourself.

Because of demographic changes and rising medical costs, federal expenditures for entitlement programs are projected to rise sharply over the next few decades. Dealing with the resulting fiscal strains will pose difficult choices for the Congress, the Administration, and the American people. However, if early and meaningful action is not taken, the U.S. economy could be seriously weakened, with future generations bearing much of the cost. The decisions the Congress will face will not be easy or simple, but the benefits of placing the budget on a path that is both sustainable and meets the nation's long-run needs would be substantial.

Read Chairman Bernake's full testimony here.

Check out www.Areyouliberal.com.  There's a great article about the need for Social Security reform and it even mentions S4... BOOYAH!! 

University of Arkansas student Derek Gordon created the blog just over a year ago and it has become very popular, receiving several thousand hits a day.  He writes, "Rarely do you find people dedicated enough to demand action to save this nation fiscally. However, it's great to see there are people and organizations out there that do care. Keep up the great work S4."

Thanks, Derek.  It's always exciting to see other young people around the country express their opinions regarding this issue. YAY!!!

Congressman Mike Pence talked on Fox News about why raising the payroll tax is a bad idea.  "We cannot raise taxes in reforming Social Security," the representative from Indiana said.

Check out the video at Social Security Choice.

January 18th, 2007

With the White House increasingly concerned with the Federal budget deficit, it seems as though Personal Retirement Accounts will take a backseat for yet another year. In the AP article, White House Budget Director Rob Portman said, "it gets easier," to erase the deficit by putting off Bush's dormant Social Security plan. "The question is whether to delay it for one or two years."

The article continues:

Direct comparisons aren't available, but a two-year delay would wipe more than $30 billion from the 2012 deficit based on earlier White House estimates of the costs of the private accounts. A one-year delay would save far less but would demonstrate a continuing commitment to the idea despite the political obstacles.

I am all for slashing the deficit and cutting spending, but will the political obstacles for Personal Retirement Accounts disappear after delaying the project in the budget for another year? Doubtful. Can Congress restrain spending and end the pay-as-you-go system of spending needed to fix the Social Security System? According to former Majority Leader Dick Armey's editorial in the Wall Street Journal today, ending paygo may have ever higher political obstacles than the proposed Personal Retirement Accounts. With neither side ready to lay their cards down on the table, we could be in for the longest game of Celebrity Poker. Ever.

In his op-ed that appeared in today's Wall Street Journal, Armey says "Social Security reforms that turn empty promises into personally owned accounts -- real assets for retirement -- cannot be funded under paygo without massive tax increases or deep reductions in promised benefits. In effect, paygo makes serious entitlement reform politically impossible without a word of debate."

Additionally, he highlights another important factor that is also dooming the Social Security system, the fact that Congress is spending the Social Security surplus. Armey points out  that "Meanwhile, as surplus payroll tax dollars currently diverted into other spending programs continue to disappear, the pressure on the deficit will become insurmountable."

S4 Action Network

January 17th, 2007

Social Security will be a force to be reckoned with this year at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held in Washington, DC. The conference is March 1st through 3rd, and S4 plans to promote Social Security reform through personal retirement accounts in a very creative/edgy way.

If you are interested in signing up for the conference you can do so here: www.cpac.org. Also, let our Activism Director, Evan Dent, know if you will be attending the conference--her email is: evan@secureourfuture.org! Stay tuned for updates on the fun activities that we will have for our members!

How are Ashton Kutcher and Holden Caulfield alike?  They both like wearing caps on their head--Ashton's favorite was a trucker hat and Holden's a hunting cap.  And what does this tell us?  Caps are cool.     

For a thoughtful look at the payroll tax cap, read Amity Shlaes' article from last week.  It's got nothing to do with Ashton or Holden, but it does look at some of the cultural effects of the cap. 

Here is an excerpt:

Executives don't always reason out why they feel better toward the end of the year. But they do. And one reason is that the cap functions like a year-end bonus.

In autumn, many workers see their take-home rise as they "earn out" of the cap system and suddenly get to take home that extra 6.2 percent. Employers for their part notice because they no longer have to pay their matching share of 6.2 percent, and so sometimes pass the extra cash along to earners. The cap makes Americans work the extra increment.