The Heritage Foundation offers a detailed plan to redesign entitlement programs, guarantee assistance to those who need it, and save the American dream for future generations. Read More.
Entitlements—Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—threaten to bankrupt the nation. The unsustainable tsunami of spending on these programs will accelerate as 77 million baby boomers flood into them. Read More.
Testimony before The Committee on Ways and Means United States House of Representatives …
Serious pension funding issues have no place being hidden in a transportation funding bill. This is especially true if the pension language could cause an even greater taxpayer bailout of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Shifting Private Pension Costs to…
Although underfunded state and local government public pension plans pose a very real threat to our national economy, “a federal bailout of the states should be avoided at all costs,” says a new report by the Senate Finance Committee Republican staff.[1] This is an appropriate policy response. The…
The defense budget is currently underfunded to compensate the professional all-volunteer U.S. force adequately and modernize the inventory of all the services. Military benefits and entitlements must be addressed to strengthen the force and ensure that those in uniform are not given fewer benefits in the future. Like the rising…
There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction. —John F. Kennedy Projected long-run program costs for both Medicare and Social…
Abstract: Savings plans offered by employers are a good way to save for retirement, and most Americans enroll in them at some point. But unless enrollment is automatic, that point is often too late in the worker’s life to build up a sum large enough for a comfortable…
David John discusses the mobility of retirement savings. …
"There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction." --John F. Kennedy "We are increasingly concerned about inaction on the financial challenges facing the Social Security and Medicare programs. The longer we wait to address these challenges, the more limited will be the options available, the…
Pursuing Universal Retirement Security Through Automatic IRAs Joint Written Statement of David C. John and J. Mark Iwry Testimony before Subcommittee on Long-Term Growth and Debt Reduction Committee on Finance United States Senate June 29, 2006 …
Sometimes the biggest stories don't make the newspaper. Earlier this month, the trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds issued their annual report on the future of the programs -- to little fanfare. Yet the report merits large headlines. It's important. And it's grim. The trustees report that the…
Under the guise of increasing benefits for the widows of railroad workers, Congress is considering the Railroad Retirement and Survivors' Improvement Act (H.R. 4844). Supporters claim that this bill will increase benefits while reducing the amount that industry has to contribute to retirement funds. It sounds too good to be true, and it is.…
As part of his recently unveiled Social Security bailout, President Bill Clinton has proposed that the federal government receive unprecedented power to invest more than $650 billion in the stock market over the next 15 years. The good news is that the White House recognizes private investment as a necessary component of long-term entitlement…
Thanks largely to the upcoming retirement of the baby boom generation, Social Security benefit payments soon will exceed payroll tax revenues. Beginning in about a dozen years, thesae annual cash-flow deficits will begin to climb rapidly, soaring to $100 billion in 2015 and $500 billion in 2025. Defenders of the…
While Social Security reform gets the most attention, it is only one part of a comprehensive approach to retirement security. Any retirement security bill should include three broad reforms. Reform #1: Reduce Social Security's burden on future generations. Social Security has promised future generations far more in retirement benefits than its current funding sources will allow it…
Executive Summary This paper proposes an ambitious but practical set of retirement savings initiatives to expand dramatically retirement savings in the United States-especially to those not currently offered an employer-provided retirement plan.** The essential strategy is to…
In his State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton announced a plan to "save" Social Security and fund a new type of retirement savings account. He promised Americans his proposal would preserve their retirement benefits, but his actual plan is based on discredited ideas and fraudulent accounting and does nothing to deal…
WASHINGTON, MARCH 3, 2005-Personal retirement accounts created from a portion of the payroll taxes workers now pay would let a typical Indiana couple build a $115,000 retirement nest egg, according to a report released today by The Heritage Foundation. "Indiana workers and their families would get a…
Younger workers' retirement security would be greatly improved by President George W. Bush's plan to allow them to establish Social Security Personal Retirement Accounts (PRAs). At the same time, workers who are 55 and older, including today's retirees, would receive every cent that they have been promised, including annual cost-of-living increases. Overall, the President has…
Last week's presidential debate at the Reagan Library elevated Social Security as a national issue that could reshape...…
Social Security took center stage at last night’s Republican presidential debate, emerging as a key issue among...…
Adding automatic enrollment to a 401(k) retirement savings plan builds retirement savings. It especially helps lower...…
Senior Research Fellow in Retirement Security and Financial Institutions