Social Security

Immigration Curbs Will Weaken Social Security

President Trump has proposed deporting hundreds of thousands of immigrants and backed curbs on legal immigration into the US. The president’s aggressive views on immigration...

February 21, 2018Howard Gleckman

: TaxVox

A Tax Credit to Give Middle-Class Workers a Raise

When the middle class was suffering from the ravages of the Great Depression, demagogues of the right and left blamed easy scapegoats and offered populist...

August 2, 2017Leonard E. Burman

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

Sanders’s Domestic Program Would Help Most Households, But Add More Than $18 Trillion to the Debt

Sanders’s Domestic Program Would Help Most Households, But Add More Than $18 Trillion to the Debt. Most American families would receive new government benefits that would exceed their higher taxes under the domestic policy agenda of Democratic Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. But even though

May 9, 2016Howard Gleckman

: TaxVox

"The Long and Winding Road... Will Never Disappear..."

The Senate’s six-year highway bill inches forward, after dropping a Social Security provision. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell won 14 Democrats’ votes for the bill after he agreed to drop a $2.3 billion offset. The money would have come from barring people with felony warrants from getting Social

July 24, 2015Renu Zaretsky

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

How Many Americans Get Government Assistance? All of Us

The other day, the Census Bureau put out a new report that concluded about one-in-five Americans received government benefits in 2012. But the study, called Dynamics of Economic Well-Being: Participation in Government Programs, 2009–2012: Who Gets Assistance, takes a far too narrow view about who

June 4, 2015Howard Gleckman

Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

CBO’s Spending Projections Map the Coming Fiscal Battle

Without changes in the law, health care, Social Security, and interest on the debt will eat up 85 percent of all new federal government spending over the next 10 years, according to the latest estimates by the Congressional Budget Office. By contrast, CBO expects most of the rest of government,

August 28, 2014Howard Gleckman

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Taxing Employer-Sponsored Insurance Would Hike Social Security Benefits But Boost Federal Coffers

The tax subsidy for employer-sponsored health insurance is huge. Not only are the premiums exempt from income tax, they are also immune from Social Security payroll tax. The two subsidies combined will add more than $1.6 trillion to the deficit over the next five years alone. But because that

May 8, 2014Howard Gleckman

Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

Congress Shouldn’t Forget About Tax Entitlements In Its Search for Deficit Reduction

Yesterday, Washington Post columnist Bob Samuelson urged lawmakers to “just eliminate…the whole notion of entitlements.” His provocative argument: The very word "entitlement" makes people believe...

October 22, 2013Howard Gleckman

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

The “Other” Social Security Issue: Disability Insurance

Since the George W. Bush Administration, Social Security reform has been atop the federal government’s list of top policy challenges. But when people talk about...

June 18, 2013Howard Gleckman

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

An Opportunity to Really Fix Social Security

The White House has put out the word that President Obama’s budget will propose changing the way government adjusts benefits for Social Security and other...

April 9, 2013Howard Gleckman