Despite Rightwing Fearmongering, Experts Say Now Is the Time to Expand Social Security

As corporate media outlets predictably trumpeted the right-wing narrative that Social Security is in dire financial straits after the Social Security Trustees' annual report was released on Tuesday, advocacy groups and experts were quick to denounce the fearmongering and correct the record, arguing that the new analysis shows the program is "stronger than ever."

"Each year, the release of the trustees report provides an occasion for Social Security scaremongering by those wanting to shrink our social insurance system," Monique Morrissey, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, noted in a blog post on Tuesday. "But not only can we afford current benefits, we can afford to expand them."

You're On Your Own: Republicans Plan Attack on Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security

Several years ago, 62-year-old Michael Kaufman, a disabled resident of Bovina, New York, accidently drilled through one of his fingers. He quickly went to the closest Emergency Room where the wound was treated and bandaged. He thought this was all that he needed to do; unfortunately, the next morning, he noticed red streaks traveling up his arm -- a sign of possible blood poisoning -- so he returned to the local ER where medical staff immediately inserted an IV of antibiotics and suggested that he go to a bigger hospital 50 miles away to see a hand specialist, which he did.

Slayers of Social Security: Rep. Sam Johnson and other Republicans like Paul Ryan want to gut safety net for older Americans

Uncle Sam wants you!

Not the symbolic Uncle Sam, but Sam Johnson. Although he’s been a member of Congress more than a quarter of a century, it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard of him. He’s a lawmaker who holds a congressional seat, but just sits in it, achieving so little that he’s unnoticeable.

But look out! Johnson has suddenly leapt into action. And we all need to take notice, because this Texas Republican has unveiled what he calls his “Plan to Permanently Save Social Security.”

In one night, the GOP voted to take away these 6 essential health benefits

Last night while you were sleeping, the Senate debated and ultimately passed a budget resolution that provides a pathway for Republicans to strip health care coverage away from 30 million Americans without having a single Democratic vote.

As the Senate debated the resolution that provides a blueprint to repeal the Affordable Care Act, both Republicans and Democrats had the opportunity to offer a flurry of rapid-fire amendments in a process known as “vote-a-rama.” While these votes are non-binding, the exercise provides an opportunity for senators to show where their colleagues stand on a number of key issues. And the results are not pretty.

Obama Wanted to Cut Social Security. Then Bernie Sanders Happened.

President Barack Obama endorsed an expansion of Social Security for the first time on Wednesday.

“We can’t afford to weaken Social Security,” he said during a speech on economic policy in Elkhart, Indiana. “We should be strengthening Social Security. And not only do we need to strengthen its long-term health, it’s time we finally made Social Security more generous, and increased its benefits so that today’s retirees and future generations get the dignified retirement that they’ve earned.”

Social Security: The GOP vs. the American People

In case anyone had any doubts, the most recent Republican presidential debate made crystal clear how out of touch the Republican establishment is with the American people.

Social Security is extremely popular with the overwhelming majority of Americans - whatever their Party affiliation, age, race, ethnicity, gender, or economic status. Social Security represents the best of American values. It is responsibly funded, does not add a penny to the deficit, and only pays benefits if it has sufficient income to cover not only the cost of all benefits, but also the cost to administer those benefits.

Social Security Benefits Are Eroding, Thanks to an Inadequate Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA)

On October 15, the Social Security Administration will announce some news that will be distressing to more than one in four households: there will be no Social Security cost of living adjustment ("COLA") for 2016. This is no small matter. The purpose of the annual adjustments is to ensure that Social Security's benefits don't lose value over time. They are intended to keep seniors and other beneficiaries afloat, to allow them to tread water. But they are not floating; they are sinking.

Why Social Security's Complexity is a Strength, Not a Weakness

Dodd-Frank. ObamaCare. And most recently, Social Security, on the occasion of its 80th birthday this month. All have been blasted of late, if not since inception. And in each case, the charge is the same: Complexity. Overcomplexity - an accusation also leveled at the tax code, the criminal code, and just about every set of US government rules. Too complicated, we're told; impossible to understand without expert guidance, such as I and my co-authors provided earlier this year with the bestseller Get What's Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security.

How Elizabeth Warren Made Expanding Social Security Cool

For years, Washington politicians and policymakers been talking about cutting Social Security benefits. The Beltway consensus, unduly shaped by deficit hawks and Wall Streeters, has been that the system is broken and must be pared back, and progressives who support Social Security have often had to play defense.

But in late March, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the populist Democrat from Massachusetts, entered the fray—and challenged the prevailing view. In the wee hours of March 27, Warren introduced an amendment to the Senate budget resolution calling for protecting the program's solvency and expanding Social Security benefits. And every Democrat present but two voted for the amendment; every Republican opposed it.

Jason Kenney Vows To Clear Social Security Tribunal Backlog By This Summer

OTTAWA - Jason Kenney is vowing that by this summer, he'll eliminate the massive caseload backlog that's left thousands of ailing or injured Canadians waiting years for appeals after being denied Canada Pension Plan disability benefits.

In a letter obtained by The Canadian Press, the employment and social development minister describes a "two-part action plan" to wipe out the backlog at Ottawa's beleaguered social security tribunal in just a few months.

Harper, Privy Council Office Approved Long Hiring Process For Social Security Tribunal

OTTAWA - The Privy Council Office, the bureaucracy that serves the prime minister and cabinet, played a key role in designing a lengthy 15-month hiring process for members of the government's badly backlogged social security tribunal, an internal memo shows.

The document, obtained by The Canadian Press, says the process was approved by Prime Minister Stephen Harper just six months before the tribunal launched.

Employment Minister Jason Kenney has pointed the finger at the "rigorous pre-screening process" for new tribunal members as one of the reasons why thousands of terminally ill or injured Canadians are waiting years for appeals after being denied Canada Pension Plan disability benefits.

Across Canada, worker compensation systems are in crisis

Across the country, worker compensation systems are failing injured workers, say injured workers and their advocates.

Ontario's compensation system has received a lot of attention in recent weeks, after an Ontario Federation of Labour study revealed that the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) is rebating millions of dollars to companies that have been found guilty of safety violations that resulted in workplace fatalities.

According to the OFL, more than 50 per cent of the offending employers received millions of dollars in rebates in the same year they committed their offences. In many of these cases, the rebates received by the companies exceeded the fines they were levied as a result of their conviction.

Omnibus budget bill restricts refugee access to social assistance

OTTAWA – Buried in the Harper government’s latest massive, omnibus budget bill is legislation that could restrict the ability of refugee claimants to access social assistance.

The move follows the government’s decision to limit refugee claimants’ access to universal, public health care.

That measure was struck down by Federal Court Judge Anne Mactavish, who said it constitutes “cruel and unusual” treatment, puts lives at risk and “outrages Canadian standards of decency.”

Social Security, Treasury target taxpayers for their parents’ decades-old debts

A few weeks ago, with no notice, the U.S. government intercepted Mary Grice’s tax refunds from both the IRS and the state of Maryland. Grice had no idea that Uncle Sam had seized her money until some days later, when she got a letter saying that her refund had gone to satisfy an old debt to the government — a very old debt.

When Grice was 4, back in 1960, her father died, leaving her mother with five children to raise. Until the kids turned 18, Sadie Grice got survivor benefits from Social Security to help feed and clothe them.

How safe is your pension?

Many retirees have found out that the pension they earned over decades of contributions to plans turned out to be less secure than they had assumed. In cases of bankruptcy such as Nortel, this has been a harsh reality for some seniors. Those who had participated in defined contribution plans found their dreams undermined when the stock market tanked in 2008. Even those in large pension plans such as the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) have been faced not only with increased contribution rates but also stories of huge shortfalls in the pension fund. The stories on "shortfalls" usually include dire warnings of the need to cut benefits by a variety of means, including a later age for retirement and the elimination of cost-of-living protection.

Who Stops Paying Social Security Taxes After Today?

Take a guess; how many Americans earn $50 million or more per year? Answer: 199 earn a wage or salary of over $50 million a year which turns out to be about $117,000 daily. (Most of the very wealthy get their incomes from investments, not salaries.)

Why are these fellow Americans interesting? Why is $117,000 a day an interesting number? Because after today those fellow country men and women stop paying Social Security taxes (they continue to pay Medicare tax all year). The Social Security earnings cap is $117,000 per year.

Low-income social housing residents anxious as Ottawa ends subsidies

Christine Crawford is a poet and seamstress who suffers from chronic, debilitating asthma. For more than a decade, her sunny apartment in Ottawa’s Sandy Hill Co-op has been her treasured oasis.

Yet Crawford faces an uncertain future that’s weighing on her this Christmas. In less than two years, Crawford could face the terrifying prospect of homelessness if the federal government fails to heed calls to work with provinces and territories to maintain social housing funding.

Dropping Unemployment Benefits 'Practically At The Level Of Immoral,' Pelosi Says

WASHINGTON -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that failing to rescue federal benefits for the long-term jobless would be practically "immoral," after an extension of the benefits was excluded from the bipartisan budget agreement announced earlier this week.

"It's interesting to note that [Republicans] rejected unemployment insurance," Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill. "This is so unconscionable, it's practically at the level of immoral to do to people who work hard, play by the rules, lose their job through no fault of their own are not able to continue getting unemployment insurance checks."

Elizabeth Warren Fires Back at Centrist Dems on Social Security

Last week, the president and vice-president of the centrist think-tank Third Way accused Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) of ignoring what they call Social Security's "undebatable solvency crisis." In an interview with Mother Jones, Warren fired back, countering the charge, and elaborating on how Social Security could be expanded.

"If we made no changes at all to Social Security," Warren said, "it would continue to make payments at the current level for about 20 years," meaning there is no immediate crisis facing the program, which assists some 58 million Americans. "Modest adjustments," she added, "will make certain… we could increase benefits for those who need it most."

New GOP Plan Would Save Military From Sequestration By Cutting Social Security

WASHINGTON -- A pair of House Republicans have a new bill that would spare the military from sequestration by cutting the Social Security benefits of many Americans who already experience painful federal budget cuts.

Reps. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) and Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) are introducing the Provide for the Common Defense Act on Tuesday. The legislation would cancel out the next two years of sequestration cuts for the Pentagon by putting a heavier burden on senior citizens and federal workers.