Social Security

3 Ideas for Fixing Social Security

By Yuval Rosenberg

Social Security’s trustees reported earlier this year that the program will spend more than it collects in 2018 , requiring it to tap into its $2.9 trillion trust fund to cover benefit payments. It’s...
Transfer Payments Hit $3 Trillion Annual Pace

By The Fiscal Times Staff

Total government transfers reached $3 trillion on an annualized basis for the first time in September, according to data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis Monday. Transfer payments include...
Democrats Take Aim at Republicans on Entitlement Cuts

By Michael Rainey

Democrats have a new sledgehammer of a study they can use in trying to link Republican tax cuts and proposed cuts to Medicare, Social Security and other social welfare programs. A report released...
McConnell: Entitlement Cuts Probably Won’t Happen Under Trump

By Yuval Rosenberg

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) unleashed a storm of Democratic criticism earlier this week by telling Bloomberg News that rising deficits and debt are driven by Social Security,...
Mitch McConnell on Rising Deficit: ‘It’s Not a Republican Problem'

By Yuval Rosenberg

The quotes: “It’s disappointing, but it’s not a Republican problem. It’s a bipartisan problem: unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the...

A Fiscal Hawk’s New Plan to ‘Avert a Debt Crisis’

By Yuval Rosenberg

The national debt rose by more than $1 trillion in fiscal 2018, and yet lawmakers have evinced little concern about it ahead of this year’s elections, instead pushing tax cuts and spending increases...
How GOP Rhetoric on Entitlements Has Changed

By The Fiscal Times Staff

The Washington Post’s David Weigel describes how Republicans have changed their tune on Medicare and, for this year at least, largely abandoned the idea of entitlement reform: “[O]ver eight years,...
Kudlow: ‘I Don’t Buy’ That Tax Cuts Boosted Deficit

By Yuval Rosenberg

Larry Kudlow is at it again. Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, the top economic adviser to President Trump said that, while the administration is looking to cut federal spending — including...
Social Security Pulled 27 Million People Out of Poverty in 2017

By Michael Rainey

Since 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau has produced a more sophisticated measure of poverty that, among other things, includes the income effects of government assistance programs such as Social Security...
‘Things Are So Much Worse’ – but Does Anyone Care About the Deficit?

By Yuval Rosenberg

As we told you yesterday , the Congressional Budget Office estimated this week that the deficit for the first 11 months of fiscal 2018 totaled $895 billion, or $222 billion more than it was over the...

What Was Notably Absent from Trump’s State of the Union Address

By Yuval Rosenberg

President Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night lasted an hour and 20 minutes — the third-longest ever, just nine minutes shy of the record . The president touched on a long list of...
Paul Ryan Throws in the Towel on Entitlement Reform

By Michael Rainey

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has long wanted to restructure entitlement programs, and there was some speculation that Republicans might try to reform Medicare and Social Security in the wake of...
Trump’s Top Priority for 2018: Infrastructure or Welfare Reform?

By Yuval Rosenberg

Trump’s Top Priority for 2018: Infrastructure or Welfare Reform? The White House has yet to finalize its top priorities for 2018, according to reports, but the administration would like to pursue...
McConnell Says Welfare and Entitlement Reform Not on Senate’s 2018 Agenda

By Yuval Rosenberg

President Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan have said that welfare reform is on their to-do list for 2018. Mitch McConnell apparently has a different plan. The Senate Majority Leader on Thursday told...
The Problem with Trump’s New 401(k) Pitch

By Yuval Rosenberg

President Trump and the White House have embraced the rising stock market as a gauge of their economic impact. Bloomberg News reports that the president has been testing a new campaign pitch, asking...