We realize it may be a stretch for ordinary people to want to keep up with the comings and goings of the Social Security Administration, but sometimes circumstances permit where someone does want to follow the latest news regarding the agency due to a possible retirement or disability interest. This blog is an ongoing piecemeal of recent stories that have involved Social Security. Some are tidbits and some are important things that should be known in the world of retirement or disability and others are just interesting stories and nothing more.
Is The Chamber Of Commerce Interested In Increasing Social Security Taxes?
It is rare for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to ever be open to raising taxes of any kind, but it appears that the largest business lobby in America is open to the idea as a way to solve Social Security’s funding issues as reported by the Washington Examiner. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has tentatively supported a plan to fix Social Security as outlined by a bipartisan group of members of Congress. The plan calls for increasing the retirement age, “trimming” benefits and yes, an increase in Social Security taxes. It is refreshing to see such a pro-business group even consider increasing revenue for Social Security, but the idea of a reduction of benefits is something most people will not support. Most Social Security recipients already struggle to make ends meet under current benefit payments and there are other ways to make up the difference rather than penalize those less fortunate than most. There are a lot of people who may be open to increasing the full retirement age considering that Americans are living longer than previous generations, but what about extending the Social Security tax to income over $118,500? No one pays Social Security taxes on a single dollar earned over this amount, so the rich appear to be the only ones this proposal is not asking more of.
What Happened To Andrew Eanes?
In February President Barack Obama nominated Andrew Lamont Eanes to be the deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration. This nomination was reported out of the Senate Finance Committee three months ago, but no action has been taken on the Senate floor on his nomination. This was not expected to be a controversial nomination by any circumstance, but we’ve all seen how the republicans reacted to the president’s Supreme Court nomination. I guess Congress will fail to take any action, especially on the nomination made by an outgoing president, until we find out the results of the presidential election in November.
The Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention kicks off this week to officially nominate Hillary Clinton for president and Tim Kaine for vice president. Last week we saw the republicans gather for their convention. I am not sure the words Social Security were ever referenced by the republicans, so we will see how high a priority Social Security will be by the speakers at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. My guess is the democrats will focus a bit more on a public program that is vital to most Americans in this country.
