Mitt Romney explicitly called for an increase in the retirement age in a speech to the Detroit Econmic Club in February 2012, during his campaign for President. He also described “progressive price indexing,” another way to cut benefits. This was all a consistent part of Romney’s views on Social Security during the primary, and it [...]

This exchange between Mitt Romney and some liberal hecklers in Iowa is sure to get some notice over the next year-plus: ROMNEY: There’s various ways of [preserving Social Security and Medicare’s solvency]. One is we could raise taxes on people. AUDIENCE: Corporations! Corporations! ROMNEY: Corporations are people, my friend. AUDIENCE: No they’re not. ROMNEY: Of [...]

One of the more glaring possible outcomes in the grand bargain would be a plan to “reform” Social Security for the long term. The President was praised by the Strengthen Social Security coalition for not proposing benefit cuts in the State of the Union or the 2012 budget proposal. The budget also added funds to [...]

The gasbags are making hay of the fact that the Obama 2012 budget doesn’t address what they refer to as entitlements. But that’s not entirely true. There are some health care-related cost savings in the budget proposal, though they are minor and go mainly toward paying for a fix in Medicare reimbursement rates. And there’s [...]

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has released a new paper on progressive-price indexing, which is a feature of both the Bowles-Simpson and the Rivlin-Domenici reports on deficit reduction. Progressive-price indexing would slightly increase Social Security benefits for low-income earners, while reducing them for higher incomes. However, that description sanitizes the real effects a [...]

Peter Orszag writes about the Bowles-Simpson recommendations on Social Security, and generally finds them amenable. I don’t know why this should come as a surprise – they basically take a similar form as his Diamond-Orszag recommendations, with a mixture of benefit cuts and payroll tax increases to arrive at long-term solvency. Orszag rightly notes that [...]

The deficit commission comes out with their recommendations on December 1; I would expect President Obama to embrace them. Stuck deep inside Evan Bayh’s encomium to tepid oatmeal was a tell on this issue. The most important area for spending restraint is entitlement reform. Democrats should offer changes to the system that would save hundreds [...]

Speaker Pelosi pointed to three studies showing that the plan for Social Security preferred by Republicans – both privatization and progressive price indexing, a feature that the deficit commission has reportedly toyed with – would slash benefits for middle-income retirees. The Joint Economic Committee, chaired by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), took on both privatization and [...]

RJ Eskow reported yesterday on a rumored deal coming out of the deficit commission on Social Security. It sounds like a really bad version of progressive price indexing, where benefits are cut for the vast majority of beneficiaries while they are raised slightly for those at the lowest income. This will be pitched as “saving” [...]

Earl Blumenauer, the Portland-area Democrat who raised eyebrows with his story in the New York Times suggesting potential benefit changes to Social Security, again reiterated to Tim Fernholz that he never intended to call the Social Security Trust Fund a “Ponzi scheme,” as Bai interpreted. He also talked about his ideas for the budget in [...]

MoveOn.org has blasted its supporters in the Portland area an email attacking local Congressman Earl Blumenauer for refusing to take progressive price indexing – a scheme whereby wealthier retirees would get reduced Social Security benefits, while maintaining levels for poorer ones – off the table. In the letter, MoveOn notes that the only way to [...]