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Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security

Joan Entmacher

Joan Entmacher is Vice President for Family Economic Security at the National Women's Law Center, where she leads a team working to improve policies important to the economic security of low-income women and their families, including tax and budget, child care, child support, unemployment insurance, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, and Social Security. Ms. Entmacher is a leading expert on issues affecting low-income women. She has been invited to testify before Congress on several occasions, written numerous analyses and reports on income support policies and their impact on poor women, and spoken frequently at conferences, briefings, and to the media. Prior to joining the National Women's Law Center, Ms. Entmacher served as Director of Legal and Public Policy at the National Partnership for Women & Families, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College, Chief of the Civil Rights Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office, and attorney in the U.S. Department of Labor Solicitor's Office. Ms. Entmacher is a graduate of Yale Law School and Wellesley College.

My Take

It's Simple Math: Getting Savings from Social Security Quickly Means Cuts for Current Beneficiaries

Posted by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security | Posted on: October 20, 2011 at 03:23 pm

The mission of the super-committee (a.k.a. Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction) is to come up with a plan for reducing the deficit by $1.2 to $1.5 trillion over the next ten years, and they’ve reportedly put Social Security on the table (even though Social Security is an insurance program with its own financing that hasn’t contributed to the deficit). It shouldn’t take an actuary to figure out that if the super-committee is going to squeeze significant savings out of Social Security over the next ten years, it’s going to have to cut the benefits of people who will be receiving benefits over the next ten years, mostly current beneficiaries and near-retirees, whose benefits politicians of both parties have said they would protect.

But it does take an actuary to determine just how much of the benefits expected to be paid over the next 10 years are expected to go to current beneficiaries and those close to eligibility, and how much would go to people who don’t become eligible until 2019 or later (under age 55 this year). Social Security’s Chief Actuary just provided those estimates.

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Senate May Vote Tonight: Make Sure They Put Teachers Back to Work Now

Posted by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security | Posted on: October 20, 2011 at 01:45 pm

Last week, Senate Republican leaders blocked debate on the full American Jobs Act. So President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) are trying to move the jobs agenda one piece at a time. And they're starting with a measure that is especially important to women.

The Senate could vote as early as tonight on whether to allow debate to begin on the Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act. Call 1-888-847-0941 NOW and ask your Senators to support the Act!

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Good News on the Social Security COLA – But It’s Less than First Appears (and Could Get Even Smaller)

Posted by | Posted on: October 19, 2011 at 11:26 am

There’s some good news today from the Social Security Administration: After two years of no cost of living adjustment (COLA), there will be a cost of living increase of 3.6 percent for 2012. But because health care costs are rising even faster than overall inflation, the increase is less than it first appears, especially for women.

Medicare premiums are deducted from Social Security, and they’re rising too. The increase in Medicare premiums will eat up much of the increase from the COLA, especially for those with modest benefits, who are disproportionately women. (However, the poorest beneficiaries – also mostly women – will be protected from the increased premiums because Medicaid pays their Medicare premiums.)

Rapid medical inflation also means increased out-of-pocket health costs. Because women face higher out-of-pocket medical costs than men and have lower incomes, rapid medical inflation hurts them even more.

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Senators Vote to Kill Jobs Bill – Even With Extra-High Unemployment in their States

In poll after poll, the American people rank jobs as their biggest concern. 

It’s easy to understand why.  More than two years after the recession officially ended, unemployment is above 9 percent, record numbers of women live in poverty, and millions of families are struggling to make ends meet.

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Tell Congress: Start Creating Jobs, Not Cutting Them

Posted by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security | Posted on: October 11, 2011 at 11:24 am

It's about jobs. You know that the most urgent deficit facing this country is the jobs deficit. It's time for Congress to do its job and pass a plan that creates jobs for the millions of Americans who are desperately looking for work.

We expect the Senate to vote tonight on whether to allow debate to begin on President Obama's jobs plan. It couldn't be more timely or important. Last week, we got some news about the job market, and it's not a pretty picture. Women gained just 4,000 of the 103,000 jobs created last month. The main reason? Cuts in funding for public services are disproportionately eliminating jobs held by women. Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, women have actually lost jobs and their unemployment rate has risen.

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