He proposes tax cuts that are modest by Republican standards, more than half of them targeted on the poorest taxpayers, and wants most of the budget surplus to go on financing the transition costs of reforming the Social Security (public pensions) system.
The Social Security Statement is one of the best things Social Security has ever done for the public.
However, this is not the biggest problem that the public sees with Social Security privatization.
FORBES: Why Americans Are Skeptical About Private Social Security Accounts
While those bonds are expressly non-transferable, which means they cannot be sold to the general public, the federal government can sell new bonds to the public to pay off these Social Security bonds, without exceeding the current national debt limit.
FORBES: Presidential Debt-Limit Deceptions And Economic Growth
Getting both parties to share the pain is also the only realistic way to tackle tough long-term problems, like the looming bankruptcy of Social Security (public pensions) and Medicare (public health care for the elderly).
ECONOMIST: Introduction: The battle of hope and experience | The
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Federal debt held by the public (which does not include social security obligations) was 35 percent of GDP in 2000, 62 percent in the second quarter of 2010, and is expected to reach 70 percent in 2011.
This is great news for the Democratic Party, even though when it comes to fixing the public schools, shoring up Social Security or overhauling the immigration system, it tends to put its own narrow interests before the broader interests of its most loyal constituents.
The public opposes raising Social Security taxes, cutting benefits, or hiking the retirement age to shore up the system.
The public discussion of social security taxes, unemployment benefits, and stimulus takes place in the language of Keynesian multipliers and stimulus counterfactuals.
FORBES: Why Don't the Republicans Play the Media Bias Game On Economic Reporting?
The public looks at Social Security as the foundation of retirement security.
FORBES: Why Americans Are Skeptical About Private Social Security Accounts
But the reform did not apply to the Social Security Institute's own employees (nor to other public-sector workers who have a separate social-security institute).
ECONOMIST: Working in the official economy has its drawbacks
The Social Security Administration and the Public Health Service recruited staff for the UMW program.
Mr. Blahous is a senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center and a public trustee of the Social Security and Medicare programs.
WSJ: Blahous and Capretta: Exposing the Medicare Double Count
As background, Chuck Blahous is one of two public trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, having been appointed to this post by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
FORBES: How the Supreme Court can Reduce the Deficit: The Fiscal Impact of Ending Obamacare
The measures are designed to "ensure internet information security, safeguard the lawful rights and interests of citizens... and safeguard national security and social public interests", and were approved by China's top legislature at the closing session of a five-day meeting on Friday, Xinhua reports.
The President's proposal would reduce the debt borrowed from the public, and deposit assets of an equal amount in the Social Security trust fund.
The enormous projected shortfalls in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid may outweigh the returns on public investments, so the optimal policy might well be to run surpluses right now.
But last week provided an even more striking example of the pragmatic detente between the two men: after months of private conversations with the President, Lott went public with a proposal that would have the effect of restraining Social Security and other entitlements.
He also said there should be limits to the amount of government debt held by the public and that the ceiling should be lowered as the Social Security surpluses mounted.
Palin, who is considering a run in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries, is using her public platforms to reassemble the coalition of security hawks, social conservatives and blue collar workers that propelled Ronald Reagan to the White House in 1980.
Interestingly enough, opinion polls taken at the time showed that the Social Security tax cut was the only part of the package that the public did not support.
FORBES: Don't Extend The Ill-Conceived, Evil Payroll Tax Cut
The number of women in prison has doubled in the past five years despite the fact that few pose a risk to the public the vast majority are serving sentences for diddling social security, shoplifting and other types of non-violent crime.
Polling continues to show issues such as education, health care and Social Security at the top of the public's agenda, and Americans generally give higher grades to congressional Democrats on those issues.
Hence, virtually all benefits can be paid out of revenues without having to borrow more money from the public, and the relatively small Social Security deficits expected during the coming decade (3% of payroll tax revenues) can and should be covered by earmarking enough general revenues to redeem the Trust Fund IOUs Congress left behind when it looted Social Security during the past 25 years.
At stake are the power of public-sector unions and the future of entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.
Recent reports about the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI monitoring sites like Facebook and Twitter raised many a public outcry about the social media version of Big Brother.
FORBES: Why It's Not Completely Ridiculous For A High School To Monitor Students' Tweets
Until and unless those changes are made, the public will continue to reject both the concept of Social Security privatization and candidates for office that advocate it.
FORBES: Why Americans Are Skeptical About Private Social Security Accounts
Rather than band together to force higher taxes on the extremely wealthy (and save public programs like Medicare and Social Security, as well as schools, roads, and other necessary government expenditures), the middle class is divided and politically weak.
FORBES: Forget President Obama: Why Isn't Robert Reich President?
"The method by which Social Security assigns numbers has been a matter of public record for years, " said Lassiter.
If that were true, the public debt might indeed be paid off early and the Social Security and Medicare costs would be more manageable (though they would still not go away).
应用推荐