Reports by Kathy Ruffing
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“Progressive” Price-Indexing Would Significantly Cut Social Security Benefits for Many Recipients
November 17, 2010
Proposals to tie initial benefit levels for new Social Security beneficiaries to changes in prices rather than average wages are receiving attention as policymakers wrestle with the nation’s fiscal challenges and with options to close Social Security’s long-term financing shortfall. Such proposals, commonly called … -
Thousands of Poor Refugees Face Loss of SSI Benefits
September 15, 2010
On October 1, up to 5,600 poor refugees and other poor individuals admitted to the United States because they faced persecution in their home countries will lose badly needed benefits from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, when a temporary provision of law expires. Over the next 13 months, up to 11,000 such individuals will have … -
Social Security Does Not Need a “Bailout”
Updated August 24, 2010
In recent months, a few commentators have sounded an alarm about the recession’s impact on Social Security’s near-term prospects, which may lead some people to think that the program faces financial problems in the next several years. Fortunately, that is not the case. Social Security continues to run annual surpluses and … -
What the 2010 Trustees’ Report Shows about Social Security
August 13, 2010
On August 5, the Social Security Board of Trustees issued the 70th annual report on the program’s financial and actuarial status. [1] The trustees’ report shows some mild deterioration in the program’s short-term outlook — a finding that was widely expected — and a mild improvement in its long-run … -
Fiscal Commission Should Not Focus On Gross Debt
July 21, 2010
A call by several members of the President’s Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform for the commission to focus on the federal government’s gross debt, rather than debt held by the public, is misguided and could inhibit efforts to address the nation’s long-term fiscal challenges. Debt held by the public … -
Critics Still Wrong on What’s Driving Deficits in Coming Years
Updated June 28, 2010
The data in this analysis has been updated, but this version has a detailed critique of a misleading report by the Heritage Foundation that places blame for the deficits on rapid growth in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest costs, and dismisses the significance of weak revenues in general and the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts in particular. To view the … -
Obama Budget Reduces Deficit by $1.3 Trillion over Next Decade Compared to Current Policies
April 5, 2010
Despite claims that President Obama’s policies will generate big increases in deficits, his 2011 budget would actually reduce deficits by about $1.3 trillion over ten years, based on a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of his budget and a realistic assessment of what deficits would be if policymakers continued to follow current … -
The Right Target: Stabilize the Federal Debt
January 12, 2010
Deficits and debt will rise to unprecedented levels in coming decades without major changes in federal budget policies, so policymakers should set a goal of stabilizing the debt as a share of gross domestic product over the next decade. This report presents new Center on Budget and Policy Priorities projections of federal spending, …
