Social Security

US Fertility Just Hit a 30-Year Low. Why That's a Problem for Social Security

By Michael Rainey

Births in the U.S. fell to a multi-decade low last year, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics released Tuesday. The provisional estimate shows 3.85 million births in the U...
Here’s How Much Americans Rely on Social Security

By Yuval Rosenberg

Social Security once again tops the list of major income sources for U.S. retirees — just as it has every year since 2001, according to a new Gallup survey . Almost six in 10 U.S. retirees surveyed...
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 the Democratic and GOP Platforms Clash Over Social Security Reform

By Eric Pianin

The new Democratic national platform approved this week in Philadelphia includes seismic changes in the Social Security programs. It includes a substantial increase in the average benefits to seniors...
How to Break Through America's Budget Gridlock

By Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY)

Last year could have been a big one for Congress, because it was able to pass its first joint balanced 10-year budget resolution since 2001 — a budget blueprint that would have put the nation’s...
Could a Universal Basic Income Really Work?

By Suman Bhattacharyya

Could we solve poverty and income inequality by just doling out money to everyone, no questions asked? The idea of a universal basic income has stimulated a lively debate among public policy wonks,...
Trump and Clinton Square Off On Saving Social Security

By Eric Pianin

In the wake of the latest trustees’ report that funding for Social Security, the premier government retirement program, will be exhausted by 2034, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump squared off this...
Social Security Trustees Project Trust Fund Will Be Tapped Out by 2034

By Eric Pianin

While Congress and the Obama administration dodged a fiscal bullet late last year by forging a deal to avert the bankruptcy of the Social Security Disability Insurance program, a new report by a blue...