Spending Cap Proposed by Senators
A bill has been introduced in Congress that would put in place a rigid spending cap. The cap would dramatically reduce Social Security, Medicare and every other federally funded program.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Social Security, Medicare and virtually every other federal program would face the budget ax under legislation unveiled Tuesday aimed at forcing Congress to dramatically cut spending over the coming decade.
The bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., would phase in a federal spending cap of just more than 20 percent of the size of the economy, which they said would wring almost $8 trillion from the budget over the coming 10 years.
Cuts of that magnitude would have to fall heavily on Social Security and Medicare, the retirement programs whose costs are being driven sky-high by the retirement of the baby boom generation.
The legislation doesn’t actually propose cuts but instead sets spending caps and enforces them with the threat of automatic, across-the-board reductions. The idea is that the threat of such a meat-ax approach would force lawmakers to make more thoughtful cuts.
Corker said the… continue reading
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Possible to Work and Collect Benefits
Depending on your age and how much you make, it is possible to continue working and collect Social Security at the same time. There are certain restrictions to this rule.
Q. I have a friend who is still working full time at age 74, earning about $40,000. He told me he is also collecting full Social Security benefits. Is that possible and, if so, why? That doesn’t seem right to me, especially since Social Security is in jeopardy.
A. Your friend’s age makes it legal for him to collect full benefits and earn as much as he does, said employment attorney Troy G. Rosasco of Turley, Redmond, Rosasco & Rosasco in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.
“If you work and are full … retirement age or older, you may keep all of your Social Security retirement benefits, no matter how much you earn,” Rosasco said.
Social Security’s full retirement age for people born in 1942 or earlier, a category your friend falls into, is 65. On the other hand, let’s say you chose to receive benefits before full… continue reading
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Obama May Address Social Security
Many are wondering whether President Obama will address Social Security in his State of the Union address. People are expecting that the president will call for a fiscally moderate path forward.
With many expecting President Obama to endorse a fiscally moderate path forward in his State of the Union address next week – and perhaps call for changes to Social Security in the process — progressives are urging the president to protect entitlement programs.
The cause of liberal concern is clear: Since Republicans won back the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections, Mr. Obama has signaled he will embrace more moderate-to-conservative ideas in his next two years in office. Recent polls suggest voters may be responding positively to that message. And as the White House well knows, Mr. Obama could help undermine any potential 2012 competitors by embracing more conservative fiscal policies.
Along those lines, the president could endorse modifications to the Social Security program in his State of the Union address, particularly given that his bipartisan deficit commission endorsed the idea in its… continue reading
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Sheriff’s Database Posted Online
The database for a Sheriff’s office in Mesa County, Colorado was mistakenly posted online. The data released includes Social Security numbers and personal data of criminals, suspects, informants and more.
The data is believed to have been accessed on multiple occasions starting sometime in late October, the spokeswoman added.
The breach resulted when an IT employee at the Sheriff’s office mistakenly placed a database containing the information onto an unsecure FTP site on a county server, according to a statement released by the county earlier this month.
The employee was responsible for uploading the data to a new system and mistakenly placed it into what the employee believed was a secure storage area, the statement said.
In all, more than 200,000 files are believed to have been placed on the FTP site, the spokeswoman said. Not all of the files contained the same data, Peterson said. Some files contained just names and publicly available information, while other files might have contained more sensitive data.
The Sheriff’s office is in the process of… continue reading
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New Agenda May Worsen Debt
This year the government is focused on slashing the debt by repealing health care and cutting spending. However, there is evidence that the new GOP plans may make the situation worse.
There’s a new sheriff in town — at least in the House — and things already feel different.
The focus is on cutting spending, repealing last year’s health care law and controlling the debt.
But it’s not at all clear that things are headed in a better direction from the budget’s perspective.
Even if the political promises don’t fizzle and the Senate follows along, implementing the new agenda might not help the nation’s fiscal situation. It could even hurt it.
Spending cuts: A good start
Government spending has grown from an historical average of 21% of GDP to 24% the past few years due to the recession. There is a very serious risk that these new spending levels will become the “new normal.”
Luckily Republicans have refocused the conversation to bringing spending back to pre-recession levels. With the recovery on track, the time has come for a massive spending… continue reading
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Americans Want Rich to Pay to Fix Deficit
Many Americans are upset over the deficit, and feel that the rich should pay to fix the deficit. Meanwhile, people want Congress to keep its hands off of Social Security benefits and Medicare.
According to the Dec. 4-7 poll, taken days after Obama’s commission sounded an alarm over the nation’s “unsustainable fiscal path,” the public still believes it’s more important to “minimize sacrifice” than to take “bold and fast” action to pare the $13.7 trillion national debt.
“The reality is deficit-cutting hurts, and the American public is in no mood for further hurt than the slow economy and high unemployment is delivering,” said J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co., a Des Moines, Iowa firm that conducted the nationwide survey.
The one place Americans are willing to see sacrifice is in the wallets of the wealthy.
While they say they strongly support balancing the budget over the next 20 years, when offered a list of more than a dozen possible spending cuts or tax increases, majorities opposed all of them except… continue reading
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Citizens Warned of ID Theft
The police in Texas are warning people to be careful with their personal information in order to avoid identity theft. They specifically warn against carrying your Social Security card with you.
SAN ANGELO, Texas — Just weeks before Christmas, while shopping in San Angelo, a woman set her purse down in a store.
When she realized that it was missing, it soon occurred to her that not just her purse, but her personal items were gone.
“You don’t realize how personal all that personal stuff is until someone takes it, and you don’t know who has it,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified.
She canceled her credit cards, and her bank put her in a special program to watch her account, but some items are more difficult to fix.
“I had my grandkids’ Ident-a-Kid cards in my wallet,” she said, “That bothered me more than anything.”
While losing her grandchildren’s identification cards was a… continue reading
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Millions Of Duplicate Social Security Numbers
A recent study has revealed there are millions of duplicate social security numbers in the US. There are millions of numbers that have more than one name attached to it as well as many people who have more than one social security number.
A study finds that millions of Social Security numbers have more than one name attached to them.
San Diego firm ID Analytics looked at 290 million Social Security numbers and found 40 million of them have more than one name attached to them.
The IRS often doesn’t find out until the impostor pays taxes.
The Social Security Administration finds out for the same reason, but the last to find out is often the person whose number has been taken.
The study also found that more than 20 million Americans have more than one Social Security number associated with their… continue reading
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