Social Security

Raising the minimum wage, as proposed in the Rebuild America Act, would help women in a lot of ways. It would help pull women and their families out of poverty, narrow the wage gap, and strengthen the economy. But it would also help women in another way you might not have thought of – by improving their retirement security.

How is it that raising the minimum wage now would help women years down the line when they retire? For starters, lower earnings mean less money available to set aside for retirement. Increasing the minimum wage would give women a little extra money to save for the future. Read more »

The Social Security Trustees just released their annual report on Social Security’s finances. It’s provoked a number of misinformed “the sky is falling” stories from journalists who should know better, as explained by the Columbia Journalism Review.

To get the facts, you can watch this short video which answers the question, “Will Social Security be there for me?” Or you can read on:

• Social Security can pay 100 percent of promised benefits for the next 20 years, until 2033, even if Congress takes no action. And after 2033, Social Security won’t be broke; payroll taxes will still cover 75 percent of promised benefits.
• It isn’t difficult to close the long-term financing gap and ensure that future generations get 100 percent of promised benefits. One way Congress could do it is by requiring high earners to pay Social Security payroll taxes on all of their earnings, which 94 percent of Americans who earn less than $110,100 a year already do.
• Social Security will run a surplus this year—and the year after that, and the year after that, until 2020. That’s right—even though Social Security will take in less in payroll taxes than it pays in benefits this year, it will have money left over to deposit in the Social Security Trust Fund after it pays all benefits due. That’s because Social Security also earns interest on the $2.7 trillion in bonds it currently holds in the Social Security Trust Fund.  

Thank Senator Harkin for Working to Rebuild America

The Rebuild America Act lays out a vision of a better America for women and their families.

Now this is more like it! You and I both know that we've had to spend a lot of time playing defense to protect critical programs and hard-won rights. But while we've been on the defensive, we've also been advocating for policies that lift up and support ALL Americans and that provide a clear path to a better future.

Now our efforts are paying off. Just yesterday, Senator Tom Harkin introduced the Rebuild America Act, which would improve economic security for women and their families. The Rebuild America Act makes investments to promote widely shared prosperity and finances them in a fair and fiscally responsible way.

This type of opportunity doesn't come along every day. Join us in saying 'Thank you!' to Senator Harkin for introducing this important bill!

What kinds of prosperity are we talking about? First and foremost — jobs. The Rebuild America Act recognizes the need for quantity and quality when it comes to job creation. The bill provides funding to help states and localities hire teachers and other public service workers — an especially crucial sector for women, who have lost nearly 70 percent of the public sector jobs cut since June of 2009. It also invests in infrastructure and manufacturing — and increases support for job training and education to expand access to these jobs among underrepresented populations. Read more »

You've heard of slash and burn, but how about slash and burden?

On Thursday, the House is expected to vote on a budget for Fiscal Year 2013 introduced by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). The Ryan budget would devastate vital services for women and their families while giving trillions in new tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and large corporations — on top of extending provisions of the Bush-era tax cuts that benefit only the very wealthy.

Let's make it clear that we will not stand for a budget that slashes programs for women and families and puts the burden of paying for tax breaks for millionaires and corporations on middle- and low-income Americans.

Tell your Representative to oppose the Ryan Budget. As your Members of Congress start budget negotiations, they need to know that their constituents expect them to protect programs for women and families — and to require the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes.

What's wrong with Rep. Paul Ryan's Budget? For starters, it would:

• Repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Insurance companies could continue to charge women higher premiums than men, deny coverage to women due to preexisting condition, and refuse to cover maternity care.

The House plans to vote tomorrow or Friday on H.J. Res. 2, a balanced budget constitutional amendment (BBA) sponsored by Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA).  The amendment is not new – it nearly came to the House floor over the summer, and similar amendments have been proposed many times over the years, especially in the 1990s.  But amending the Constitution to require the federal government to balance its budget every year was a terrible idea then, and it’s a terrible idea today. 

So terrible that a group of more than 1,000 economists, including 11 Nobel laureates, issued a joint statement in 1997 that said, “We condemn the proposed ‘balanced-budget’ amendment to the federal Constitution.  It is unsound and unnecessary…[and] mandates perverse actions in the fact of recessions.”

So terrible that five winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics issued a statement  in July opposing a BBA because of the negative effect it would have on an already troubled economy.

So terrible that Macroeconomic Advisers, a private economic forecasting firm, recently concluded that if a BBA had been ratified and were now being enforced for fiscal year 2012, “the effect on the economy would be catastrophic” and “recessions would be deeper and longer.”  According to the report, if the budget were balanced through spending cuts in 2012, about 15 million more people would lose their jobs and the unemployment rate would double (from 9 percent to a staggering 18 percent).  

Still not convinced?  Here’s a recap of my top five reasons why the House should reject the BBA:  Read more »

Do you live in Arizona, Massachusetts, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Washington? If so, call 1-866-251-4044 today to tell your senator on the super-committee to oppose cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in the super-committee.

If you’re a resident of one of the states above, we need your help. Senators Kyl, Kerry, Baucus, Portman, Toomey, and Murray are all members of the very powerful congressional super-committee charged with deciding how to cut the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion over ten years. Time is short — the committee faces a deadline of November 23 — and the stakes are high.

Various proposals before the super-committee would reduce Social Security benefits and cut Medicare and Medicaid by as much as $685 billion. Each of these vital programs provides income security and health care to millions of Americans — mostly women.

Your senator needs to hear from you now! Over the next couple of weeks, the handful of members on the super-committee will decide the fate of these and other vital programs. Read more »

Despite dreary weather yesterday afternoon, the rally in support of House Resolution 72 persevered outside the Capitol building. To catch you up, Representative John Conyer Jr.’s (D-MI) resolution opposes cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

The rally was comprised of a multitudinous array of advocates and supporters, including representatives from NOW, AAUW and NWLC. The crowd was clearly passionate in their support of these vital programs. Signs boasted slogans ranging from, “Social Security: A Shared Commitment Across the Generations,” to “Hands Off My Medicare & Medicaid,” to “Women Depend on Medicare!” Additionally, various pieces of literature were circulated as to educate the participants further. Read more »

The deadline for the super-committee to produce its deficit-reduction plan is fast approaching, and cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are reportedly on the table.

Since large majorities of voters across party lines oppose cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits to reduce the deficit —including self-described “fiscally conservative” voters, as well as Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – we’re particularly concerned that policy makers might try to disguise painful benefit cuts as merely technical changes. So we’ve explained how changing the way the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is calculated for Social Security is not a more accurate way to measure inflation, but a “stealth” benefit cut that would especially hurt women. Read more »

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. Read more »

Most of the work of the congressional super-committee (officially, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction) is going on behind closed doors – but reports are leaking out. And the word is that some members of the super-committee are targeting programs for low-income people for cuts. Today’s post focuses on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) – but Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, Social Security, Medicare, and other vital programs are also threatened, and we’ll have more to say about them as the committee continues its work. Read more »