About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

189 IRET Congressional Advisory 1 (2005)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/iretcgadv0186 and id is 1 raw text is: INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ON THE ECONOMICS OF TAXATION IRET is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) economic policy research and educational organization devoted to informing the public about policies that will promote growth and efficient operation of the market economy. Advisory No. 189 Statement of Stephen J. Entin President & Executive Director Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation Hearing on Protecting and Strengthening Social Security House Ways and Means Committee Subcommittee on Social Security June 21, 2005 Congress has been asked to deal with the projected outyear deficits in the Social Security Old Age and Survivors Insurance program (OASI), and to help future generations better meet their retirement needs. It would be wise to take action now, while policy changes would have time to work, rather than wait until a crisis forces less benign choices on a future Congress. Before taking action, however, the Subcommittee needs to be clear about several things. What are the problems that you are trying to address? What policy options are available and what do they do? How can they be matched to the objectives? What are the problems that you are trying to address? Is your objective merely to deal with Congressional concerns about the Federal budget consequences of the OASI deficits? Is it merely to keep OASI solvent, more or less in its current form, for some period of time after the retirement of the baby boom generation, with minimal political fall-out? If these are the goals, Congress must either raise taxes dedicated to OASI, raise other taxes, trim OASI benefits, or trim other spending. There are an infinite number of ways to do this. Some combination of changes must be selected. In 1983, a compromise was agreed to under the cover of the Greenspan Commission. It merely bought time. It did not solve the System's long run problems, and paid no attention to the proposal's effects on the economy and the well-being of the population. Are there additional objectives this time around? Should the solution enhance the retirement income of future generations? Should it improve the functioning of the economy? Should it give people more freedom and responsibility for their own welfare? Should it provide a permanent fix, throughout the 75 year planning period and beyond, rather than a temporary one as with the 1977 and 1983 Amendments? If so, you must address the solvency and budget issues in certain ways and not others, and go beyond solvency to address these other issues. In doing so, be very careful how you design your program to make it effective, affordable, and devoid of unintended consequences.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most