Garcia 1
Ashley Garcia
November 13th, 2010
Rotation B
AP Gov
The Social Security Reform
Nowadays social security has become something that workers do not want to invest in. Social Security has been around for over 70 years and has benefitted millions of Americans financially leaving them with the reassurance that they will be able to retire in comfort and worry-free about finances. The newly proposed Social Security reform is because of the constantly changing demographics. The new Social Security reform insists that to solve their approaching debt problems, they must “raise taxes, reduce spending, and invest workers taxes into some sort of PRA.” (http://www.socialsecurityreform.org/fastfacts/index.cfm) The issue here is that Social Security’s financing is heading downhill leaving those Americans retiring left with unstable financial security and with their families left with the burden of their taxes.
“The amount promised in benefits is far more than the system can afford to pay.” (http://www.socialsecurityreform.org/fastfacts/index.cfm) The baby boomers from post World War II are all approaching retirement simultaneously and they expect to collect their Social Security when they do. The platform that the Republican Party stands on on the Social Security issue is that: “workers will have a choice to invest in payroll taxes, retirees currently collecting Social Security will not be affected by any changes, principal changes or rearrangements must be
Garcia 2
agreed upon by both parties, reform will not include tax increase and that any new retirement options should be voluntary.” (http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Republican_Party_Social_Security.htm)
The Democrats look at the Social Security Issue as something that could be solved with little changes and that shouldn’t affect future retirees any differently than citizens currently collecting Social Security. They believe that they should “prevent the privatilization of Social Security…. and help Americans create retirement savings. “ (http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Democratic_Party_Social_Security.htm) Opposing the Bush Administration that used billions and billions of dollars from Social Security, they are against the raising of the retirement age and belief that these American citizens should receive the same benefits that past benefiters have received for many years. At the Democratic National Platform on Aug. 15, 2000, Gore proposed Retirement Savings Plus which is a government plan that would help baby boomers’ savings reach a total of $400,000 which would be tax-free and personally controlled.
Those who are currently benefitting off of Social Security need not to worry about this proposed reform. This new reform does not have to take complete affect so abruptly and scientists predict that the reform would work out much better is it happened gradually. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that beginning this year Social Security will make less revenue than it needs to pay out benefits for the first time ever. (http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/11/pf/saving/social_security_reform/) This will gradually begin to worsen and after around seventy-five years there will be about a $27 trillion shortfall. In order
Garcia 3
to prevent this and the United States going into more debt within this decade, scientists believe that the government needs to reduce spending and raise taxes. The Social Security Reform is just one more financial issue that the government has to deal with in this crumbling economy.
