Immigration, Social Security, and the budget
So could immigration help entitlements and the budget? Sure, if it was principally high-skill, high-earning immigration. But is that the deal on offer? No. read more
So could immigration help entitlements and the budget? Sure, if it was principally high-skill, high-earning immigration. But is that the deal on offer? No. read more
The issue is a program that induces even high income Americans to get a third of their retirement income from the government and spend a third of their adult lives in retirement. Reform doesn’t mean indiscriminate cuts like the chained CPI. But it doesn’t mean uninformed defenses of the current program, either.
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But the chained CPI really isn't being proposed as a Social Security reform, as a way to make the program more solvent or better-functioning. True Social Security reforms think about ways to better protect the poor, or to encourage longer work lives, or increase retirement saving. The chained CPI, by contrast, is about producing savings within the 10-year budget scoring window.
But by eliminating the cap, a person earning $225,000 would pay roughly four times more in taxes than he'll receive in benefits. A growing resemblance to a welfare plan would be inescapable.