Related Content: social security
AARP uses its power to oppose Social Security, Medicare benefit cuts for retireesEssential Reads AARP, the lobbying powerhouse for older Americans, last year made a dramatic concession. Amid a national debate over whether to overhaul Social Security, the group said for the first time it was open to cuts in benefits.The backlash from AARP members and liberal groups that oppose changes in the program was enormous — and this time around, as Washington debates how to tame the ballooning federal debt, AARP is flatly opposed to any benefit reductions for the nation’s retirees. |
On edge of brutal ‘fiscal cliff,’ some see an opportunity to end debt paralysisEssential Reads Two years ago this month, the leaders of a presidential commission rolled out a startling plan to dig the nation out of debt. After decades of profligacy, they said, Washington must tell people to work longer, pay higher taxes and expect less in retirement. |
Gingrich and Romney Tack Right, but Leave a Path Back to the MiddleOn The Radar Through the long march of 2011 debates ending last week, Republican presidential candidates have leaned right — so far right, Democrats hope, that the ultimate nominee will fall next November. On Thursday night, in their final face-off before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, the former House Speaker Newt Gingrich denounced President Obama as a “Saul Alinsky radical” while promising “very large changes” for Washington. Promoting his “conservative principles,” former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts slammed Mr. |
While Washington Fights, Your Taxes Set to RiseOn The Radar WSJ's David Wessel offers analysis of Washington's battle over payroll tax reductions as Social Security tax increases are slated to kick in at the end of December.
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The debt fallout: How Social Security went ‘cash negative’ earlier than expectedOn The Radar Last year, as a debate over the runaway national debt gathered steam in Washington, Social Security passed a treacherous milestone. It went “cash negative.” For most of its 75-year history, the program had paid its own way through a dedicated stream of payroll taxes, even generating huge surpluses for the past two decades. But in 2010, under the strain of a recession that caused tax revenue to plummet, the cost of benefits outstripped tax collections for the first time since the early 1980s. |
Police Expand Philadelphia Dungeon CaseOn The Radar Captors allegedly held disabled people captive to collect government checks. |
May 14, 1993Weekly Show President Clinton declared victory when his economic program to lower the federal deficit passed the House Ways and Means Committee in May 1993. But panelist Gloria Borger predicts political deadlock in the Senate between Democrats and Republicans over Clinton’s desired tax hike—the biggest the country had seen in decades—that proposed to raise taxes on the wealthy and increase the Social Security tax. |
On the Radar: September 22, 2011Legacy: On The Radar |
On the Radar: July 22, 2011Legacy: On The Radar |
Grand Bargains: Why they are so elusiveGwen's Take
I’ve been afflicted this week with a disorienting sense of déjà vu that affects any reporter who has covered Washington long enough. Even the most consequential and operatic standoffs begin to seem eerily familiar. |
