Time For Straight Answers On Social Security
Originally Posted At
Forbes.com
By Lawrence A. Hunter, Ph.D.
September 24, 2011
Social Security Institute Calls On Presidential Candidates To Take The SSI Survey On Social Security
The more the presidential candidates talk, the less we seem to know about their views on Social Security.
For example, does Mitt Romney really
believe, “There are (sic) one of two ways you can make Social Security work forever:” Raise the retirement age or means test the program by “having slower growth in inflating the benefits of higher-income of (sic) Social Security recipients?”
Does Rick Perry use the so-called
Texas Model as a working model of how he as president would apply the county-operated public-employees’ model in Texas to workers in the whole United States? If so would he apply the Texas Model strictly and allow only public workers but not private workers to op into it or would he allow all private workers to opt into such a model as well? Or, does he mean he would return Social Security to the states and allow each state to determine how the program should be structured and operated? Inquiring voters want to know.
There is so much rhetoric and so many generalities flying around the campaign trail about Social Security—what it is, what condition it's in and what should be done to preserve or reform it—that it is impossible for voters to know where the candidates stand on specifics. The rhetorical arguments generate more heat than light. Presidential debates encourage slick posturing, not specific answers. The Mainstream Media is more interested in using the debates to advance its own
agenda than enlightening voters.
Therefore, if voters hope to know specifics about where the candidates stand on Social Security, it is up to them to squeeze the specifics out of the candidates. We at the Social Security Institute have created a simple nine-question survey on Social Security to help do just that, squeeze the answers out of candidates who otherwise will obfuscate and avoid specifics like the plague.
Voters can
send the candidates a simple, compelling message by signing the SSI petition to all presidential candidates demanding that they fill out the SSI Candidate Survey on Social Security: “If you don't respect me enough to be straight with me on Social Security and fill out the SSI Social Security Survey, I won't trust you enough to vote for you. No Survey = No Vote.”
SSI will tally the candidates' answers to the survey questions and make them available on the
website and publicize them in the media.
This is not a pledge, and these are not trick or “gotcha questions.” They are clear and straightforward questions the next president will be unable to avoid so he or she is obligated to voters to provide them answers before they ask for their votes.
SSI Candidate Questionnaire on Social Security
1. Do you support reducing Social Security Cost of Living Allowances (COLAs) by changing the way inflation is measured; say by adopting the Chained Consumer Price Index?
Yes________ No ________
2. Do you support increasing the retirement age?
Yes________ No ________
3. Do you support means testing Social Security?
Yes________ No ________
4. Which of the following choices best describes your belief about the proper rate of return Social Security recipients should receive from their lifetime of contributions to the program? Social Security recipients should receive (choose one of the following):
A. A real rate of return equal to zero, i.e., a rate of return that compensates workers for the rate of inflation but no more;
B. An overall rate of return as close as possible to the market rate of return, i.e., a rate of return that compensates workers both for inflation and with interest for the government's use of workers' retirement money during their working years;
C. "Rate of Return" is the wrong benchmark against which to calibrate Social Security benefits; benefits should equal approximately the amount that workers pay into the program during their lifetime of payday contributions to it.
D. Social Security should be means tested, and benefits should be established on a sliding scale based on wealth and income to provide a guaranteed minimal level of support to those retirees with little or no savings or other retirement income.
A________B ________C________ D ________
5. Do you support raising the cap on the amount of income on which workers must pay Social Security taxes?
Yes________ No ________
6. Do you support allowing younger workers to voluntarily opt-out of the current Social Security program and devote at least a portion of their payday contributions to their own personal retirement accounts similar to retirement accounts owned by federal employees and Members of Congress?
Yes (public employees only, as in the Texas Model)________
Yes (all workers, private and public employees)________
No ________
7. Which of the following options better reflects your view of the Social Security Trust Fund Bonds (choose one of the following):
A. The national debt is so out of control that the Social Security Trust Fund must share in deficit reduction, which may mean not paying all the interest or redeeming all of the Trust Fund Bonds in full or on time; OR
B. The federal government should repay all of the Social Security Trust Fund Bonds in full and on time, with interest and without regard to the rest of the national debt.
A________B ________
8. If you answered "B" in question seven, how should the federal government raise the revenue to redeem the bonds and pay the interest on them (you may select more than one of the following options):
A. Borrow the money from the public;
B. Raise taxes;
C. Reduce spending on other federal programs and devote those savings to paying interest on and redeeming Social Security Trust Fund Bonds.
A________B ________C________
9. Which of the following choices best describes your belief about the eventual fate of Social Security (choose one of the following):
A. Social Security should be returned to the States;
B. Social Security should be reformed and remain a federal program; or
C. Social Security should be phased out and eventually repealed altogether.
A________B ________C________
Download pdf version of Lawrence Hunter's letter to the candidates and the SSI Candidate Survey on Social Security
here. . .
Exit Not An Option In Chuck Schumer's America. New York Senator Chuck Schumer has introduced the Fugitive Taxpayer Act of 2012 to re-impose taxes on expatriates after they flee the United States and take up residence in a foreign country. Proposal also would impose a mandatory 30 percent tax on the capital gains of anybody who renounces their U.S. citizenship and would bar such individuals from ever reentering the United States again.
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