Troubled Social Security Program Turns 80

However, its capacity to support such numbers for generations to come is often the subject of political debate.

When President Franklin Roosevelt introduced Social Security, he was clear about its goals. For example, did you know the original name of the Social Security Act was the Economic Security Act?

The solvency of Social Security affects everyone. “Increasingly, people recognize that saving for retirement is becoming harder and harder, and Social Security is becoming even more important”.

In 1960, there were more than five workers for every person receiving a benefits check. Today there are fewer than three.

“Remember, these are our most vulnerable population”, Colvin said. “These are the aged who helped to construct this nation”.

About 168 million workers pay Social Security taxes.

Including to the gridlock, policymakers are shifting in reverse instructions. Republicans are pushing to cut benefits while a growing number of Democrats is pulling to expand them.

Some 72 members of Congress signed a letter to President Barack Obama in July, calling for Social Security benefits to be enhanced. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is running for the Democratic nomination for president. Without it, an additional one third of older Americans would live in poverty. Social Security now finds itself at a crossroads, with widely disparate views on the future direction of the program.

In June of this year, the average monthly benefit for a retired worker was $1,335. That comes to about $14,700 a year.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, scoffs on the concept of increasing advantages. “It’s a good program, but it can’t keep going the way it is right now”. Now the idea of any surplus seems surreal. Social Security’s combined trust funds are now valued at $2.8 trillion.

The retirement belief fund has sufficient cash to pay full advantages till 2035. If the payroll tax were applied to all wages, the great majority of the projected shortfall would be wiped out. If that occurs, it will set off an automated 19 % minimize in advantages. However Republicans say that may be like robbing seniors to pay the disabled.

Lawmakers could redirect tax revenue from Social Security’s much bigger retirement program, as they have done in the past. In the first year, the gap would be $571 billion, according agency data. Social Safety’s mixed belief funds at the moment are valued at $2.eight trillion.

Rand Paul: wants to raise the retirement age to 70 and called for privatizing Social Security as well as allowing young workers to “opt-out”. Instead, the federal government should start by making tweaks to the system, including raising or lifting the cap on wages above the $118,500 mark. In 1939, Social Security added survivors benefits as well as spousal and children’s benefits in certain circumstances, and the first monthly Social Security check went to Vermont’s Ida May Fuller in January 1940. By regulation, the will increase are pegged to an inflation index. The Chained CPI would reduce the annual COLA by 0.3 percentage point, on average.