President Obama tasked the U. Department of the Treasury with creating myRA, a retirement savings account designed to help more Americans start saving for retirement.
It costs nothing to open a myRA account, there are no fees, and no complicated investment options. Plus, the account carries no risk of losing money and is backed by the U. Savers can fund their myRA accounts from a paycheck, a checking or savings account, or their federal tax refund.
To learn more or to sign up for a myRA, visit myRA. Progress Many seniors are struggling in the face of the economic downturn, having seen their savings fall, and we acted quickly to help provide relief.
Strengthening Retirement In addition to protecting and strengthening Social Security, President Obama will make it easier for Americans to save on their own for retirement and prepare for unforeseen expenses. Share This: Twitter Facebook Email. Taxes now amount to Bush would have allowed 4 percent to go to private accounts, with the remaining 8. But even that limited proposal was too much for the Republican leadership in Congress in , when the GOP had a seat majority in the member Senate and outnumbered Democrats to in the House.
Tellingly, nearly all were quotes from or earlier. Not exactly enlightening. And, we will add, not exactly honest of Pelosi, either. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart, Aug. The most significant current support for private accounts comes from Rep.
Ryan issued his own budget plan earlier this year. But few Republicans support it publicly. But the plan proposed by Bush and currently by Ryan was optional. Nobody would have been forced to participate. As part of that offer, the President was willing to accept Republican proposals to switch to the chained CPI. But, the Budget makes clear that the openness to chained CPI depends on two conditions.
The President is open to switching to the chained CPI only if:. The change is part of a balanced deficit reduction package that includes substantial revenue raised through tax reform. It would phase in over 10 years, beginning at age 76, or for other beneficiaries, such as those receiving Disability Insurance in the 15th year of benefit receipt. The benefit enhancement would begin in , phasing in over 10 years for those 76 or older or in their 15th year of eligibility or beyond in that year.
Beneficiaries who continued to be on the program for an additional 10 years would be eligible for a second benefit enhancement, starting at age 95 in the case of a retired beneficiary. Because of the benefit enhancement for the very elderly, the Budget proposal would not increase the poverty rate for Social Security beneficiaries, and would slightly reduce poverty among the very elderly according to SSA estimates.
Phil Moeller writes the Best Life retirement blog for U. Boston College economist Alicia Munnell is a retirement expert who has appeared on the NewsHour often over the years. She and I visited a community college some years ago to discuss raising the retirement age for Social Security and raising the pay ceiling on Social Security taxes.
He is the host of the weekly podcast series EconTalk , and he blogs at Cafe Hayek. According to table IVB6 of the Social Security Trustees Report , which, it appears, neither the President nor anyone else in Congress has examined, the system is 31 percent underfunded and needs a 22 percent immediate and permanent benefit cut to achieve fiscal sustainability.
If you believe that elderly Social Security recipients can easily substitute goods and services with cheaper goods and services of the same quality, raise your hand. Advocates for the chained CPI say it accurately reflects the real cost of living by taking into account the possibility that people can easily substitute chicken for beef as beef prices rise.
That works in theory, but not in fact. Studies of the real lives of seniors show the opposite. The goods and services that seniors buy more than others, namely medical care, rise in price more. That means increases in Social Security benefits have not kept pace with increases in the prices of those goods and services purchased by the elderly, and that some other index might be more appropriate.
Social Security should be chained to the CPI-E, which measures the changes in buying prices of a typical bundle of goods and services older people buy. As I argued on the NewsHour last night , most economists, myself included, judge that to be a more accurate measure of inflation for the general population, but not for the elderly, since they spend more out-of-pocket on health care relative to everyone else.
Interestingly, for low-income elderly, this would actually lead to an increase in their benefits relative to current law.
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