Social Security

Is Social Security a ‘Good Investment’?

By Michael Rainey

Social Security is a pay-as-you-go social insurance program, not an investment fund, but Monique Morrissey of the Economic Policy Institute says that its return on contributions is actually quite...
Paul Ryan's Fiscal Legacy: Lots of Red Ink

By Yuval Rosenberg

House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Wednesday that he won’t seek re-election this year and will retire at the end of his term in January, becoming the most prominent in a wave of Republican lawmakers...
Yellen, Democratic Economists Say Fixing Debt Crisis Isn’t All About Entitlements

By Yuval Rosenberg

Late last month, a quintet of big-name Hoover Institution economists warned in a Washington Post op-ed that a coming “string of perpetually rising trillion-dollar-plus deficits” could soon lead to a...
Which Americans Worry Most About Social Security?

By Yuval Rosenberg

Maybe call it social insecurity? Just over half of American adults between the ages of 50 and 64 say they worry a “great deal” about the Social Security system, according to recent polling by Gallup...
The Old Will Outnumber the Young in the US by 2035

By The Fiscal Times Staff

By 2030, all Baby Boomers will be older than 65, meaning that one in five U.S. residents will be of retirement age, the Census Bureau reports . And by 2035, seniors will outnumber children for the...

The $82 Trillion Problem Washington Has Stopped Talking About

By Yuval Rosenberg

Now that “the anti-deficit hysteria of the Great Recession has given way to a backlash of complacency,” lawmakers and the public are ignoring “an $82 trillion avalanche of Social Security and...
New Budget Projections Show a Rising Tide of Red Ink Ahead

By Michael Rainey

The Congressional Budget Office won’t release new budget projections that include the effects of the President Trump’s tax overhaul until April, but on Friday the deficit hawks at the Committee for a...
Why Trump’s Immigration Plan Could Hurt Social Security

By Michael Rainey

Economists have warned that the Trump administration’s plan to reduce immigration and deport thousands of unauthorized immigrants could impose significant costs in terms of lower growth and lost...
How Trump’s Budget Would Cut the Social Safety Net

By Yuval Rosenberg

As a candidate, President Trump said he would not cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. But his 2019 budget proposal seeks to reduce spending on all three programs and other parts of the social...
Why This Is a Bad Time to Turn a Blind Eye to the Deficit

By Yuval Rosenberg

In a Wall Street Journal column , Princeton economist and former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder explains why Washington’s race to increase deficits through a combination of tax cuts and...

Trump Policy Advisor Promises an Astounding $7 Trillion Surplus

By Rob Garver

Donald Trump sent Sam Clovis, who identifies himself as Trump’s chief policy advisor and the national co-chair of his presidential campaign, to Washington on Wednesday to talk to an audience of...
Can You Fix Our Fiscal Mess?

By Eric Pianin

By the end of the current fiscal year, the federal budget deficit will rise to $534 billion – about $100 billion more than last year’s shortfall. Then, as a new Democratic or Republican president...
A Popular Social Security Strategy Is Closing -- Here’s What It Means For You

By Janna Herron

The elimination of a valuable Social Security strategy that married couples use to get more benefits comes at the end of this month. That has some older Americans scrambling to get in before it’s...
As the Debt Hits $19 Trillion, Has the US Reached a Tipping Point?

By Rob Garver and Eric Pianin

For several years, the growing federal debt was ignored as the economic recovery chipped away at once massive spending shortfalls of $1 trillion or more. Now, there’s an uneasy feeling among many...
GOP Candidates Would Sacrifice the Social Safety Net for Tax Cuts

By Mark Thoma

In a recent interview with CNBC, House speaker Paul Ryan said : “I believe that if we do not prevent Medicare from going bankrupt, it will go bankrupt. And that will be bad for everybody. We have to...