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.
It is time to deal with Social Security's realities and to create a program that will provide our kids and grandkids with the same type of retirement security that our grandparents had. First off, Social Security did not spring fully formed from President Franklin Roosevelt's head in 1935: The original… Read more
As an antidote to months of Obama Administration rhetoric that Social Security “isn’t the problem,”[1] three Senators have produced legislation that both recognizes the program’s financial realities and would fix it for the next 75 years. The Social Security Solvency and Sustainability Act, S. 804, introduced by Senators… Read more
The debate is over. Social Security is running out of money and time. This month’s report from the Social Security trustees notes that “[p]rojected long-run program costs for both Medicare and Social Security are not sustainable” and legislative action is necessary to avoid “disruptive consequences.”How bad is it? Social Security… Read more
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… Read more
Runaway spending and deficits continue to grow unabated in part because any attempts to rein them in are relentlessly demagogued by defenders of big government. The latest example is the budget recently authored by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R–WI) and passed by the House of Representatives. … Read more
Saving the American Dream is The Heritage Foundation’s plan to fix the debt, cut spending and, above all, restore prosperity. It balances the nation’s budget within a decade—and keeps it balanced. It reduces the debt and cuts government… Read more
AT 75, Social Security is starting to show its age. The major source of retirement income for millions of Americans, Social Security has a significant deficit in cash flow.Worse, its long-term picture is bleak. Social Security owes $7.7 trillion more in benefits than it will take in from… Read more
At 75, our Social Security program is starting to show its age. The major source of retirement income for millions of Americans,… Read more
Abstract: Americans are living longer, which means they are spending a higher proportion of their lives in retirement, receiving Social Security payments. Yet the government program is a mere five years away from being unable to pay out all of the claims it has promised. Because today’s retirees enjoy… Read more
There he goes again. President Obama is proposing yet another huge tax hike. … Read more
Abstract: The number of Americans who pay taxes continues to shrink—and the United States is close to the point at which half of the population will not pay taxes for government benefits… Read more
Social Security is probably the most popular federal program, yet most people know almost nothing about it. In practice, Social Security's complex benefit formulas and rules make it difficult for people to understand how their retirement benefits will work. This paper explains what Social Security is and how it works. The first section explains what Social… Read more
There are only three real solutions to Social Security's rapidly approaching fiscal problems: raise taxes, reduce spending, or make the current payroll taxes work harder by investing them through some form of personal retirement account (PRA). Establishing PRAs is the only solution that… Read more
What can Americans expect in future Social Security retirement benefits? A Heritage Foundation study reveals that the Social Security system's rate of return for most Americans will be vastly inferior to what they could expect from placing their payroll taxes in even the most conservative private investments. For the low-income African-American male… Read more
America's oldest federally supported social insurance programs face enormous and widely recognized financial problems. Without significant changes in the ways that Social Security's retirement, survivors, and disability insurance programs raise revenue and pay benefits, outlays from the Old-Age and Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) programs will exceed income in 2014.2 By 2034, all of the… Read more
As political leaders debate how best to fix Social Security, many policymakers are focusing on the wrong issue. Their sole concern seems to be the date when the Social Security retirement and survivors trust fund will run out of its paper assets. This mistaken emphasis misses the fundamental point about Social Security's… Read more
Sweden was the first nation in the world to implement a universal government-run retirement system, but today it is in the process of privatizing part of its pension program. Facing problems similar to those that beset the U.S. Social Security system, the Swedes decided that personal accounts were the best way of ensuring that… Read more
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… Read more
Revised and updated July 06, 2011. Washington’s reckless spending spree of the past several years and unwillingness to confront the mountains of debt coming soon from unreformed federal entitlement programs threaten the economic and social… Read more
The Social Security debate is back. A number of unions and other organizations have banded together under the banner “Strengthen Social Security” to oppose any change to Social Security benefits, including raising the retirement age or including any form of means testing. They fear that the National Commission on Fiscal… Read more
Abstract: The 2010 annual report by the Social Security trustees has been released. It comes as no surprise that the Trustees Report predicts massive—and permanent— yearly deficits if the Social Security system is not reformed. Though the report shows that Social Security payments are… Read more
Dark clouds hover over the nation’s finances and threaten a perfect storm of massive debt and crushing taxation unless...… Read more
President Obama and Republicans in Congress continue to wage war over an extension of the payroll tax cut. But missing...… Read more
Senate Finance Committee Republicans have some good advice for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction...… Read more
In its latest video railing against reform of Medicare and Social Security, AARP pushes for a pinch hitter to solve...… Read more
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) came to Washington as the a tea-party conservative with the goal of fixing the economy,...… Read more
While some of the press stories might make one think that Bernie Madoff ran Social Security, the reality is quite...… Read more
Last week's presidential debate at the Reagan Library elevated Social Security as a national issue that could reshape...… Read more
Social Security took center stage at last night’s Republican presidential debate, emerging as a key issue among...… Read more
With continuing unemployment problems driving more and more Americans to seek Social Security disability benefits, that...… Read more
Catching you up on clips, commentary and news of the day. Sign up for the daily email update from Scribe. A...… Read more
Distinguished Fellow and Director, Center for Policy Innovation
Director, Center for Data Analysis
Senior Research Fellow in Retirement Security and Financial Institutions
Grover M. Hermann Senior Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs
Senior Fellow