Social Security

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Obama Vows Social Security, Medicare Reform
Obama Vows Social Security, Medicare Reform
Interview
Jan 16, 2009 8:05 AM CST

Obama Vows Social Security, Medicare Reform

Will hold summit to hash out ways to rein in spending

(Newser) - Barack Obama promised major overhauls for the country’s ever-growing entitlement programs yesterday in a wide-ranging interview with the Washington Post. We have “kicked this can down the road,” Obama said. “We are now at the end of the road.” Obama will hold a “fiscal...

Obama Targets Social Security, Medicare

Faced with trillion-dollar deficit, president-elect vows reform, trims

(Newser) - In his first foray into the hazardous terrain of entitlement programs, Barack Obama said yesterday that his administration would overhaul Social Security and Medicare to clamp down on government spending. At a news conference and in a subsequent interview with the New York Times, the president-elect said, "If we...

Forget That Stimulus Bill: 5 Things Obama Should Fix

Obama shouldn't rely on a stimulus package for a cure-all

(Newser) - Barack Obama and his team are devoting much effort to a proposed stimulus package for 2009, but that is simply a superficial fix, writes James K. Galbraith in Mother Jones. “The effect ends when the stimulus does, when the sugar shock wears off,” says Galbraith, who suggests five...

Don't Take the 'Gold' Out of Americans' Golden Years

And why is retirement reform taboo?

(Newser) - Snow White’s dwarf pals are so happy to go to work that they sing about it, “and they’re 71 years old,” writes Irwin Stelzer of the Weekly Standard. “So why do so many of us less vertically disadvantaged worry about” extending the retirement age? Average...

Assaults on Our Freedom Come From Left and Right

Long bipartisan history of infringing on rights of Americans

(Newser) - Those who blame the current administration for assaults on US constitutional freedoms should take a longer view, writes Alexander Cockburn in the American Conservative. “No doubt the conservatives who cheered Bush on as he abrogated ancient rights and stretched the powers of his office to unseen limits would have...

Bailout Won't Boost Deficit
 Bailout Won't 
 Boost Deficit 
ANALYSIS
Sep 26, 2008 7:34 PM CDT

Bailout Won't Boost Deficit

Government would be buying assets, which are worth something

(Newser) - The $700 billion bailout plan won’t have a big immediate impact on the US budget deficit, Phil Izzo explains in the Wall Street Journal, because the government would be buying assets that have an estimated value. That value will be knocked off the purchase cost. “The program does...

Mac's Market Approach Sours Amid Crisis

Obama seizes on plan for privatized Social Security accounts

(Newser) - The tumbling stock market has drawn the wrong kind of attention to John McCain’s Social Security and health-care positions, the Wall Street Journal reports, since the Republican has long been an advocate of more market-based, deregulated approaches in both areas. A new Barack Obama ad says McCain’s plan...

McCain Team on Defense Over Health Care Comment

Dem said McCain backs banking deregulation

(Newser) - John McCain was back on the defensive over the economy yesterday, after Barack Obama accused him of touting banking deregulation in a magazine article even as Washington is scrambling to re-regulate the industry to stave off a Wall Street meltodown, the Washington Post reports. In this month's Contingencies magazine, McCain...

In Fla., Obama Lays Into 'Panicked' Mac

Dem touts focus on 'Main Street,' targets state's women, retirees

(Newser) - Barack Obama criticized the administration’s response to the plight of working families today, while calling for steps to regulate large financial institutions, CNN reports. “We cannot only have a plan for Wall Street,” he said. “We must also help Main Street as well.” The Democrat...

Pundits Pile on Stumbling Mac
Pundits Pile on Stumbling Mac
OPINION
Jul 31, 2008 12:10 PM CDT

Pundits Pile on Stumbling Mac

As candidate flails, labels range from dishonorable to 'stupid,' and 'losing it'

(Newser) - A rare level of pundit fury is flying at John McCain, as some erstwhile defenders lose patience with the Republican. Daniel Henninger asks point blank in the Wall Street Journal, “Is John McCain stupid? Is John McCain losing it?” The venerable rightie documents lazy and repeated stumbles on social...

Journal Wonders Why McCain Is Waffling on Taxes
Journal Wonders Why McCain Is Waffling on Taxes
OPINION
Jul 30, 2008 5:49 PM CDT

Journal Wonders Why McCain Is Waffling on Taxes

He's giving away a must-win fight on the economy

(Newser) - Taxes should be an easy issue for John McCain, as he’s running against a Democrat “who says matter-of-factly that he wants to raise” them. So the Wall Street Journal wonders why he appears to be giving away his advantage. Given a chance to voice his support for private...

Social Security Reform Dicey for McCain
Social Security Reform Dicey
for McCain
ANALYSIS
Jul 14, 2008 11:26 AM CDT

Social Security Reform Dicey for McCain

GOP candidate talks up privatization; Dems promise stiff opposition

(Newser) - John McCain has opened a political can of worms by embracing the polarizing issue of privatizing social security, the Los Angeles Times reports. McCain says making young workers pay into a plan unlikely to benefit them is a "disgrace." Counters a rep for one group planning to fight...

Social Security Divides Candidates

Experts question wisdom of Obama's broaching topic

(Newser) - John McCain and Barack Obama are pitching profoundly different approaches to saving Social Security, the Washington Post reports. While McCain favors a mix of strategies including raising the retirement age, reducing increases in benefits, and introducing private savings accounts, Obama intends to bolster the program with higher taxes on upper-income...

McCain Vows to Balance the Budget
McCain Vows
to Balance
the Budget
Jul 7, 2008 1:44 PM CDT

McCain Vows to Balance the Budget

Social Security reform one scenario; Dems call plan unrealistic

(Newser) - John McCain will pledge to balance the budget by the end of his first term, Politico reports, promising spending and entitlement programs, including Social Security, in a policy paper released today. McCain is renewing a promise he’d backed off from in April—a vow likely to excite his fellow...

Millions Skip Filing for Stimulus

IRS struggling to keep up

(Newser) - Roughly 5 million people who qualify for a stimulus check could be out of luck because they haven't filed a tax return, CNN reports, and the IRS is scrambling to let them know. These un-stimulated masses consist mostly of seniors and veterans who don’t normally file returns. “I...

Illegal Immigration Spurs Identity Theft
Illegal Immigration
Spurs Identity Theft
ANALYSIS
May 18, 2008 6:15 PM CDT

Illegal Immigration Spurs Identity Theft

But many federal agencies aren't doing enough, City Journal says

(Newser) - Identity theft and illegal immigration are not only keeping cops busy, they're often linked, Steven Malanga writes in City Journal. Illegals are known to swipe US workers' data to obtain jobs or commit crimes, and the top five states for identity theft have large immigrant populations. But efforts to stop...

No Rebates for Immigrant Taxpayers—or Yank Spouses

Caught in rules designed to cut illegal immigrants

(Newser) - Hundreds of thousands of legal, taxpaying immigrants and their Americans spouses are among the unhappy few who won’t be getting a tax rebate check, AP reports. Taxpayers need a Social Security number to qualify—a rule intended to carve out illegal immigrants. Also inadvertently cut from the benefit are...

Social Security, Medicare Woes Unchanged

Programs bound for insolvency, annual status report says

(Newser) - Social Security and Medicare still face financial problems down the road, but the situation became no worse last year, trustees for the programs said today. The trustees predict that Social Security will become insolvent in 2041, Medicare in 2019. True to form, Republicans sounded alarms about the issue while Democrats...

McCain Outlines More Specific Fiscal Stance

Candidate looks to cut taxes, project fiscal responsibility

(Newser) - How would John McCain run the economy, really? In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the candidate tried to answer that question, positioning himself as a fiscally responsible defender of the Bush tax cuts. But the candidate’s tax proposals don’t quite add up, the Journal notes, and...

Government Typos 'Kill' Thousands
Government Typos 'Kill' Thousands
Mar 1, 2008 9:08 AM CST

Government Typos 'Kill' Thousands

People very much alive struggle to convince Social Security they're alive

(Newser) - It's not easy being dead—just ask Laura Todd. The Tennessee woman is one of an estimated 12,000 people a year the government declares dead—often because of a typo in the Social Security database—when they're still very much alive, MSNBC reports. The error can create a financial...

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