http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm The Association of Young Americans Policy Issue of the day. en-us Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:05:35 -0400 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:28:00 -0400 BlogCFC http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss young_americans@hotmail.com young_americans@hotmail.com http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2010/3/15/Social-Security-Trust-Funds After decades of the Social Security system running budgetary surpluses, which were loaned to other federal government programs, this year Social Security will run a deficit. As reported by Yahoo News,"This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes nearly $29 billion more. Sounds like a good time to start tapping the nest egg. Too bad the federal government already spent that money over the years on other programs [...]. Now the government will have to borrow even more money, much of it abroad, to start paying back the IOUs, and the timing couldn't be worse. The government is projected to post a record $1.5 trillion budget deficit this year, followed by trillion dollar deficits for years to come." As noted in the AYA Social Security Issue Paper, "There are only three ways for the government to make up for the 'declining Social Security surpluses and emerging Social Security deficits: reduce spending, raise taxes, or borrow more.'" social security Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:28:00 -0400 http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2010/3/15/Social-Security-Trust-Funds http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/12/10/Calls-for-Fiscal-Responsibility The Concord Coalition convened a National Conference on Fiscal Stewardship this week in Washington, D.C. Attendees came from across the country and discussed ideas for addressing our growing national debt and increasing costs of entitlement programs, as reported by CNN Money. Learn more about the national debt, budget deficits and entitlement programs in our "Deficits and Debt" and "Social Security" issue papers and on the Concord Coalition website. Share your thoughts in our Forums. Budget Deficits and Debt Healthcare social security Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:08:00 -0400 http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/12/10/Calls-for-Fiscal-Responsibility http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/7/31/Medicare-Medicaid-and-Social-Security Tomorrow afternoon, at their annual meeting in Chicago the American Bar Association is hosting an Intergenerational Debate on Reforming Entitlement Programs. The two young lawyers are former AYA board member Erin Ginsburg and current AYA president Luke Repici. Check out the latest on healthcare reform from the Wall Street Journal. And learn more about these issues in our Social Security and Deficits and Debt Issue papers. Share your views in our Forums. Deficits and Debt Healthcare social security Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:26:00 -0400 http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/7/31/Medicare-Medicaid-and-Social-Security http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/1/27/Addressing-Social-Security-and-Medicare Last week President Obama said he wanted address the long term fiscal insolvency of entitlement programs, such as social security and medicare. In an interesting piece in Newsweek, Robert Samuelson addresses the generational implications of reforming these programs. "[T]he promises made to retiring baby boomers may impose crushing costs on society. Taxes may rise, other government programsfrom national parks to college grantsmay suffer and long-term economic growth may slow. Again, the main victims would be today's young, who would pay higher taxes and receive fewer public services." In assessing the likely outcome of any reform effort, Mr. Samuelson concludes that "[t]he conflicts between generations may or may not incite open political warfare, but either by design or default, we will be making decisions about America's future. The old are well organized and highly protective of promised benefits, while the young are politically passionate and unfocused. For the young, the odds look lousy."How, if at all, do you think social security and medicare shoudl be reformed? How do you think we, as a society, should balance the interests of the young with those of the old? Share you thoughts in the Social Security Forum. social security Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:34:00 -0400 http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/1/27/Addressing-Social-Security-and-Medicare http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/1/9/Large-Increase-in-Social-Security-Benefits Every year, Social Security Benefit levels are adjusted and increased based on the rise in cost of living. According to Forbes.com "Social Security recipients are already reaping a $38 billion windfall. The extra money comes thanks to a quirk in the Social Security Administration's regularly scheduled cost of living adjustment. Every year, Social Security payments increase along with the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. The increase is set at whatever the change in inflation was between July and September from one year to the next. Last year, soaring gas prices sent the Consumer Price Index skyward, and in October the Social Security Administration set the cost of living increase at 5.8% for 2009. That's the largest adjustment since 1982" The article in Forbes also noted that "The cost of living adjustment does not decrease if the cost of living goes down, it only increases when costs go up."What do you think of increases in Social Security benefits being automatic, rather than evaluated on some regular basis? Do you think that cost of living adjustments should only result in inceases in benefits? Learn more in our Social Security Issues Paper and share your views in our Social Security Forum. social security Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:29:00 -0400 http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/1/9/Large-Increase-in-Social-Security-Benefits http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/8/14/IOUSA-opens-next-Friday Next friday, with some early showings a week from tonight, a feature documentary "I.O.U.S.A." will open in 10 cities around the country. The film is fact-based, nonpartisan and nonideological, and it features a number of candid appearances, including by Warren Buffett, Alan Greenspan, Paul Volcker, Pete Peterson, Sens. Kent Conrad and Judd Gregg, former Treasury Secretaries Paul O'Neill and Robert Rubin, former CBO chief Alice Rivlin, Rep. Ron Paul, Bob Bixby, and David Walker. You can learn more at the film's website - www.IOUSAtheMovie.com.Learn more about our nation's budget in AYA's Deficits and Debt Issue Paper and at the Peterson Foundation. Share your thoughts, questions and concerns in our Deficits and Debt Forum. Budget Deficits and Debt Healthcare social security Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:18:00 -0400 http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/8/14/IOUSA-opens-next-Friday http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/6/17/Entitlement-Reform Yesterday and today, 12 young americans - including the president and co-founder of the Association of Young Americans - have been holding hearings on the increasing costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in Washington, D.C. at the Youth Entitlements Summit. Today the summit will hold a panel on the underrepresentation of young people in the political process along with other events that will including Senator Norm Coleman, Representative John Spratt and Representative Paul Ryan. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about the conference. You can learn more about entitlement programs and the federal budget in our Social Security and Deficits and Debt issue papers. Share your questions, ideas and concerns in our Forums. Budget Deficits and Debt Healthcare social security Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:50:00 -0400 http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/6/17/Entitlement-Reform http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/2/14/Seniors-Biggest-Government-Expense Benefits for senior citizens account to the largest portion of federal government spending according to a new report by the USA Today. "The federal government spends more on seniors than on any other group or program," the report found, noting the following: Federal spending in 2007 (billions) Percent of budget Senior benefits $952.3 34.9% Defense $552.6 20.2% Interest on debt $237.1 8.7% Learn more about Federal government spending in our Deficits and Debt paper and one of the main federal expenses in our Social Security paper.Share your thoughts and concerns in our Forums. Budget Deficits and Debt social security Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:45:00 -0400 http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/2/14/Seniors-Biggest-Government-Expense http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/1/29/State-of-the-Union-last-night-and-Florida-Primary-Today Monday night, President Bush gave his final State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress. The Wall Street Journal noted that "[t]he president highlighted the progress he is seeing in many of the trouble spots of his sometimes-rocky tenure, from Iraq to the U.S. housing market to hurricane-stricken New Orleans. He also touted a range of modest bipartisan agreements that his lame-duck administration is offering to strike with the Democratic-controlled Congress, in such areas as education and trade." The president told Congress that he would veto bills with earmarks, and also pointed out that they had failed to take any steps to secure entitlement programs such as social security and medicare. He noted that if they failed to act on reforming these programs the nation would be forced to raise taxes, cut benefits or run higher deficits. Meanwhile, the Florida Primary is today for both the republicans and the democrats, although the democratic party has prohibited candidates from campaigning in Florida because the state moved up its primary. Learn about Social Security, and Budget deficits and the Debt here on our website. Share your views on the President's SOTU address and the ongoing presidential primaries in our forums. 2008 election Deficits and Debt social security Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:23:00 -0400 http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/1/29/State-of-the-Union-last-night-and-Florida-Primary-Today http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/2/7/Social-Security-and-Medicare Today's Wall Street Journal has an interesting discussion of the history and future of the two large entitlement programs. "Social Security was set up as an intergenerational transfer from those of working age to the elderly. But its soundness has been undermined by improvements in longevity and reductions in fertility," the article notes. Additionally, "If we only let Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries get the levels of care they received in 2000, we wouldn't have a long-run healthcare financing problem." What do you think about the future of these two programs? Learn more about Social Security on our website and share your views in the Social Security forum. social security Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:07:00 -0400 http://associationofyoungamericans.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/2/7/Social-Security-and-Medicare